Ask Dre Sneak Peek - Power and Herta

Here's a sneak peek of the latest Ask Dre out tomorrow. Blame the Discord server. - Dre x

Your takeaways on 1) Will Power leaving Penske, and 2) Colton to F2 - Debbie

Thanks for the softball Debbie, you’re far too kind!

Will Power first. First of all, well done James Hinchcliffe for getting the big scoops on his Podcast from Power and Dan Towriss. It seems to be that the hint was right in front of us the whole time. His emotional win in Portland and his “Respect me, motherfucker” radio message was his frustration getting the better of him. It turns out he wanted three more years with Penske as far back as the end of 2024, when he was Alex Palou’s main contender for the title. Tim Cindric said he’d look into it, but never approached him again to talk about a new contract. 

Power admitted he’d have taken a one-year deal if offered to him in May, but no concrete offer was ever put down. After Portland, Penske wanted Power to head to Detroit to discuss his future, but by then, Power made his own decision to leave the team. He’d had enough. 17 years of loyalty to the team, gone, as he heads to Andretti to take Colton Herta’s #26 car on a MULTI-YEAR DEAL, what Power always wanted.

My thoughts? Yeah, I really don’t know what Penske was thinking on this one. Power had a year left at the end of last year when he was absolutely still their best driver. Surely then was the time you sit down and negotiate a new deal, even if you feel it might be his last? To let it drag on deep into a contract year was asking for trouble. 

David Malsher-Lopez at Racer.com reported that the entire paddock was lining up with offers but never truly believed Penske would let him go. The only team steadfast on its lineup?! MCLAREN, who kept Nolan Siegel on for 2026, despite Pato O’Ward begging to bring him in to improve the team’s consistency. Yes, McLaren, the second best team in IndyCar this season, had an open goal to sign Will Power and turned it down!

It goes to show you that the upper management of the organisation is in disarray. I get they had to fire Cindric and the rest of the senior management after their second cheating scandal in as many years, but how was Power’s contract such a colossal oversight? How was there no communication between the camps at all? Did Penske just have the arrogant assumption that Power would just sit back and relax out of sheer loyalty? 

Look, I like David Malukas, he’s a very talented oval driver and that’s clearly where Roger’s priorities lie in having three bullets in his chamber for the Indy 500, but I’m not sure he’ll ever be what Will Power was to this team, or even what Power is right now, still one of the five or six best drivers in the series. And remember - He’s the only beat to beat Alex Palou to the Astor Cup in the last five years.

Penske are coming off probably their worst season since 1999 and need to get its house back in order and decisions like that one don’t fill me with confidence about them in the medium-term either. You don’t accidentally just lose one of IndyCar’s greats. 

As for Colton Herta for F2… I admit, I’ve come around a little bit on this one. When it was first announced, I think everyone involved was bonkers. As time has gone on, yeah, I get it.

I think a part of this is internet perception. People batted hard for an Andretti-led F1 team, especially with Michael’s… shall we say, cavalier approach to the sport itself. A year or so on, in the eyes of many, it’s an annoyingly sensible development plan and maybe too safe. Pat Symonds, Nick Chester, Graeme Lowdon, Rob White, Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez? A Ferrari customer deal while you build your own power-unit for 2028? These are all sensible decisions to help get a new team off the ground. 

I’ll give Colton this, he’s seemed dead-set on being an F1 driver for three or four years, ever since his name was thrown around when he was barely a teenager in IndyCar and winning races. He could have easily stuck around in the series, especially coming off a runner-up Championship run in 2024. But he’s shown that he’s prepared to take the big chance if it’s even for a slim chance at an F1 seat. 

The plan does make sense. He’s five points shy of a Superlicence, and they’re not going to rush his development plan. Sauber’s simulator is being put to use, and rather than scramble him into a punching-down winter series to quickly get his points like Red Bull did with Arvid Lindblad, he’s going to spend at least a year in F2. It’s a good idea for him to get some actual experience on a good chunk of the tracks he’ll be driving at if he gets into F1. He doesn’t need to be spectacular, a Top 10 in combination with some FP1’s in 2026 should do it. And with Bottas and Perez both on multi-year contracts, there’s no hurry for him to be great.

Of course, there’s an element of risk involved. He’s entering the Mechachrome lottery. Prema isn’t a bad fit if the reports are true, but they’ve not won since Hungary last year in F2, and they’re certainly not Invicta, who have been the best team since the new car arrived last year and the team that brought Gabriel Bortoleto to glory last season. If Herta’s slow to adapt in a field that will have that European circuit advantage, it could be an embarrassing look if things don’t work out, despite being a 25-year-old elite IndyCar driver with half a dozen wins to his name in one of Motorsport’s most experienced fields. 

We have the walking case study - Ritomo Miyata. One of just six men to have done the Super Formula/GT500 Japanese Double, and has come to Europe and has struggled to perform since getting here. He might be coming back for his third F2 season in 2026 and I fear he’s going to be in Motorsport no-mans-land due to the damage to his reputation. This is what Colton could be if this doesn’t work, even if I have no doubt an IndyCar team would take him back in a heartbeat if he returned. But it could be the final death sentence for an F1 team ever taking a chance on an IndyCar driver again, and this series shutout Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward already.

Like I said, I applaud Colton for taking on the challenge, and Andretti’s commitment to having an American pathway into F1. But I can’t help but wonder… you already have an oven-ready, F2 prospect in a title fight right now, who will likely have his Superlicense at the end of t