Ritomo Miyata and Colton Herta

IndyCar race-winner Colton Herta is making an unusual career change for 2026 by leaving America’s top single-seater series to race in Formula 2.

With seven seasons of IndyCar racing under his belt, he has significantly more experience at this level than those he will go up against. Herta will turn 26 years old in the same month as next year’s Formula 2 season-opener, meaning he is also quite a bit older than a typical F2 driver.

But his team mate is not one of them. Ritomo Miyata is already 26, which means their Hitech team has an unusually mature driver line-up among its Formula 2 rivals.

It’s not uncommon for F1 teams to promote some drivers who are younger than those racing in F2. But Hitech’s 2026 line-up is a particularly unusual case.

Miyata is older than 10 drivers who will contest the 2026 F1 season, including the world champion Lando Norris. Herta is older than eight of those already in F1.

Five F1 teams will have driver line-ups which are older, on average, than Hitech’s F2 duo. These include reigning champions McLaren plus 2025 race-winners Red Bull and Mercedes.

Both Racing Bulls drivers are younger than each of the Hitech racers, despite both of them having raced in Formula 2 before. Haas also has a younger driver line-up, on average, than the Hitech pair:

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and

Herta became the youngest driver to win an IndyCar race with his victory at the Circuit of the Americas in 2019, when he was 18 years old. Despite winning nine times in the series and placing second in the championship last year he was unable to collect enough FIA superlicence points to qualify to race in F1.

After Herta confirmed his move into F2, the FIA announced it will increase the number of superlicence points it awards to IndyCar drivers from 2026. Herta will also serve as a test driver for new team Cadillac next year as he hopes to race for the team in 2027. The newcomers will have the oldest line-up on the F1 grid next year.

F1 drivers’ ages at the first race of 2026

RankDriverTeamAge at first race
1Arvid LindbladRacing Bulls18 years, 217 days
2Andrea Kimi AntonelliMercedes19 years, 200 days
3Oliver BearmanHaas20 years, 309 days
4Gabriel BortoletoAudi21 years, 150 days
5Isack HadjarRed Bull21 years, 166 days
6Franco ColapintoAlpine22 years, 291 days
7Liam LawsonRacing Bulls24 years, 31 days
8Oscar PiastriMcLaren24 years, 342 days
10Lando NorrisMcLaren26 years, 122 days
12Lance StrollAston Martin27 years, 137 days
13George RussellMercedes28 years, 28 days
14Charles LeclercFerrari28 years, 150 days
15Max VerstappenRed Bull28 years, 166 days
16Esteban OconHaas29 years, 179 days
17Alexander AlbonWilliams29 years, 357 days
18Pierre GaslyAlpine30 years, 37 days
19Carlos Sainz JnrWilliams31 years, 196 days
20Sergio PerezCadillac36 years, 50 days
21Valtteri BottasCadillac36 years, 201 days
22Nico HulkenbergAudi38 years, 211 days
23Lewis HamiltonFerrari41 years, 70 days
24Fernando AlonsoAston Martin44 years, 233 days

Colton Herta will be 25 years, 349 days; Ritomo Miyata 26 years, 217 days

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and

Miss nothing from RaceFans

Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:

Formula 2

Browse all Formula 2 articles