{"id":908385,"date":"2026-09-24T22:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T22:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/908385\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T22:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T22:34:14","slug":"accidental-gymkhana-cadillac-f1-test-driver-herta-pulls-off-150-mph-save-of-a-lifetime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/908385\/","title":{"rendered":"Accidental Gymkhana: Cadillac F1 Test Driver Herta Pulls Off 150-MPH Save of a Lifetime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\tThe Drive \ud83e\udd1d your inbox. Every weekday<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">The Daily Brief wraps up the biggest stories and our exclusive reporting on the auto industry and car culture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph pw-incontent-excluded article-paragraph skip\">Cadillac <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedrive.com\/category\/f1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Formula 1<\/a> Team test driver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedrive.com\/news\/colton-herta-takes-vital-step-toward-cadillac-f1-race-seat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Colton Herta<\/a> showed off his impressive wheelman skills by pulling off the save of a lifetime during Formula 2 qualifying in Baku earlier today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">As seen in the video <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Oe-I2By-X7k\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">below<\/a>, around the 7:40 mark, the American racer\u2019s F2 car lost grip under braking as he entered Turn 15 of the Baku City Circuit, causing the rear to lose traction and whip around. According to track telemetry, F2 cars approach Turn 15 at about 155 to 161 mph, while apex speeds range from 50 to 60 mph.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">Thankfully, rather than fight the spin and countersteer\u2014which could\u2019ve sent the front end in the opposite direction and straight into the wall\u2014he let the car rotate all the way and do a 360-degree spin. The result? An impressive-looking spin that avoided contact with either wall and let him continue qualifying. Of course, those tires were severely flat-spotted and had to be changed, but that\u2019s better than damaging the car\u2019s bodywork or suspension.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazied-youtube-frame-thumbnail\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"F2 Qualifying Highlights | 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790289254_978_hqdefault.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tF2 Qualifying Highlights | 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">Herta\u2019s results during his maiden F2 season are far from ideal, but that was to be expected given his drastic, somewhat last-minute jump from IndyCar to F2 so he could get enough FIA superlicense points to step up to F1 in the future. Although many see F2 and F3 as categories full of billionaire kids racing with their daddy\u2019s money, the talent is exceptional, and the racing is fiercely competitive. Although extremely talented, Herta\u2019s uphill battle was always going to be very intense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">The young American recently <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/herta-abandons-f2-route-f1-120000205.html\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> that he is \u201cnot interested in another year in Formula 2,\u201d but with two points shy of meeting the minimum requirement to race in F1, he may be forced to do so\u2014at least if he still wants to pursue his F1 dream with Cadillac.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">Got a tip? Email us at tips@thedrive.com<\/p>\n<p>Add The Drive as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=thedrive.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">preferred source on Google<\/a> to see more of our reporting.<\/p>\n<p>As deputy editor, Jerry draws on a decade of industry experience and a lifelong passion for motorsports to guide The Drive\u2019s short- and long-term coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Drive \ud83e\udd1d your inbox. Every weekday The Daily Brief wraps up the biggest stories and our exclusive&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-908385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}