IndyCar’s Colton Herta said he never wanted the FIA to bend its own rules to allow him to race in Formula One next year.
The American looks unlikely to be granted an exemption on his superlicence in order to allow him to move to Red Bull junior outfit AlphaTauri next season.
Herta is short of the 40 points he requires to race in F1 and will not get enough in IndyCar this year to finish above the threshold, as he is 10th in the championship.
The issue has generated a lot of debate in recent weeks but the FIA has said it will not set a precedent by bending its rules to help one driver.
“I can understand the FIA’s position,” Herta told Motorsport.com. “I just feel that IndyCar is underrepresented in the superlicence points structure.
“But from their point of view, with the current points structure, I get it. And I don’t want to come in as ‘an exception’.”
Had Herta been granted the exemption, the move would have allowed Pierre Gasly to sign with Alpine, although AlphaTauri might still be able to complete that deal if it can sign Dutch driver Nyck de Vries to replace the French driver.
Practice sessions with F1 teams are worth one superlicence point each, which could be an option for the Californian if he wants to add points this year.
Herta tested a Formula One car with McLaren earlier this year and praised company Zak Brown for his help.
“Zak Brown said he’d be interested to run me in FP1s but he wouldn’t want to put me in a McLaren if I had a contract with AlphaTauri: it’s kind of going against your team!
“I appreciate all the effort Zak has made for me – he’s been great to me. There’s been a lot of stuff in the news but he’s been completely transparent to me all along, and it’s been great to work with him.”
Herta added: “I think it was possible to do something like [Asian Regional Formula], but I feel like I shouldn’t have to go race in a feeder series after I’ve been a professional driver for four years. So I didn’t fully consider it.”