Vesti finishes third in Mexico practice as Herta seeks superlicence

Vesti makes his case in Mexico

Vesti, who replaced George Russell in the Mercedes car for the session, finished third in the Mexico FP1 session; he used soft tyres and lapped 0.111s behind Kimi Antonelli. Deputy Mercedes team principal Bradley Lord called it the "most impressive" of Vesti’s seven F1 practice outings so far. Vesti remains a contender for the 2027 Cadillac seat alongside Valtteri Bottas, Colton Herta, and Yuki Tsunoda to partner Sergio Perez. Russell told the media that Vesti "deserves his chance" because he has worked hard with the team. Vesti improved his best lap by 1.1s when he switched from hard to soft tyres. He admitted that using first gear in Turn 16 cost him time, though his pace in sector two and three put him just 0.051s behind Antonelli. When he saw his P3 result, Vesti said any rookie driver’s dream is to be punching the top three when you have one hour in a car. Vesti told The Race that he has worked with George Russell for four years and that Russell helped him in F2.

Herta seeks final superlicence point

Colton Herta will drive the Cadillac MAC-26 during the Friday practice session in Brazil to earn his final FIA superlicence point. He currently has 39 points and needs 40 to race in Formula 1. A mistake on the IndyCar website, which listed Herta in sixth place instead of seventh, led Cadillac to believe he already reached the 40-point threshold. Herta earned one point for finishing tenth in IndyCar in 2023, 30 points for finishing runner-up in 2024, and four points for being seventh in 2025, so he now has 39 points. He remains short of the necessary points because his car broke down in Monza, which prevented him from reaching the 100km threshold. Herta must complete at least 24 laps at Interlagos to reach the minimum required for the point. He will replace Sergio Perez in the car for this session and aims to provide the engineers with setup data. Herta said, "I’m really looking forward to getting back behind the wheel of the MAC-26 for another FP1 session. Interlagos is such an iconic, historic track, and driving an F1 car around there is going to be an awesome experience." His pursuit of the license happens as Cadillac considers whether to retain Valtteri Bottas or hire Herta for 2027. Herta has achieved 9 wins, 16 pole positions, and 20 podiums in his career.

Simulator experience and technical expertise

Vesti has completed over 50,000 laps in the Mercedes simulator during his five years with the team. He spent 300 days in the simulator and completed between 150 and 200 laps on each of those days, and he led the development of the 2026 championship-leading car. Vesti, who finished second in the 2023 F2 championship, told The Race that his knowledge could help smaller teams take the next step because he led the development of the championship-leading 2026 Mercedes car. While he did not have the same CV as drivers like Charles Leclerc or Oscar Piastri, he regularly compared well to Bearman, Liam Lawson, and Isack Hadjar. Mercedes allowed Vesti to use soft tyres in Mexico to demonstrate his performance potential, though he found the 2026 car "more challenging to drive" and "unforgiving" in some corners. Cadillac is investigating a suspension failure that hit Valtteri Bottas in Mexico, though team principal Marcin Budkowski said the squad implemented mitigations to prevent a repeat. Vesti, who joined the Mercedes academy in 2021, said, "F1 is the only thing I care about. F1 is the only place I want to be, and everything I do on the side is for me to be prepared for Formula 1."