Cadillac F1 target suffers terrifying Indy 500 qualifying crash as car flips upside down | F1 | Sport

Colton Herta suffered a terrifying crash during qualifying at the Indianapolis 500 on Saturday. The Andretti Global racer lost the rear of his Honda-powered machine on the entry to Turn One, sending him hurtling into the barriers. After making contact with the outside wall, the 25-year-old’s car rebounded and the air scooped it up, flipping the Andretti machine onto its roll hoop.

Herta was then subjected to another gut-wrenching impact as he skidded sideways into the barriers. The AMR Safety Team were quick on the scene and helped restore Herta’s car to an upright position. The California-born racer sat on the sidepod of his car after climbing out, grabbing a breather following the scary crash.

Herta was subsequently taken to the infield care centre before being checked and released. However, the 25-year-old was unable to climb back into the cockpit, ensuring that he will have to battle for a spot in the field on Bump Day on Sunday.

Speaking to Fox Sports after leaving the care centre, Herta explained: “Yeah, I’m fine, you know. Luckily nowadays, these crashes look a lot scarier than they feel – not to say that that one felt good.

“But I think the team is going to be hard at work right now trying to get the back-up car ready, and yeah, it is going to be probably impossible to get out today, so we’ll have to see what we can do. Just a terrible day for this to happen.

“And it was… no real signs leading to it. We were super happy with the car this morning and [we] go out and just loose… couldn’t even get lap one done. So it sucks, but I’m good and we’ll keep going.”

The Andretti Global racer wasn’t the only one to suffer a trip to the infield care centre on Saturday. In morning practice, Marcus Armstrong hit the wall following a rear-first spin and was carried into an ambulance on a stretcher. The New Zealander gave the thumbs up and was later cleared, but the impact was a scary one.

Herta’s crash was the latest blow in a challenging 2025 season thus far. The 25-year-old has been heavily linked with a seat with the new Cadillac F1 squad for 2026, but faces stiff competition from the likes of Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez and Mick Schumacher.