Lando Norris, Colton Herta reunited in this weekend's IndyCar iRacing Challenge
Four years before Colton Herta burst onto the IndyCar scene as the youngest winner in series history, Lando Norris had already spotted a fast, gutsy, aggressive young driver in the makings.
"He was nicknamed 'Hooligan Herta' for many reasons," said Norris on Friday, reflecting on the pair's two years in 2015-16 spent as Carlin Racing teammates in the lower Formula levels in Europe.
But when their racing careers diverged – Herta into IndyCar's Road to Indy program and Norris toward his role as a current McLaren Formula One driver – it seemed likely their paths may never cross on-track again.
Saturday's IndyCar iRacing Challenge event, held on virtual Circuit of the Americas at 2:30 p.m. on NBC Sports will give fans of both series and idea of what could have been.
"Sometimes, you would never maybe in your career get to race against these people. Virtually, you're still racing against people with different skills and attributes," Norris said. "Obviously, for me coming in and joining you in IndyCar, it's quite the opportunity."
This week, Norris was extended an invitation from IndyCar to be its "special guest" driver of the race and will become the fourth out-of-series driver, along with NASCASR's Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch (and outside of Marco Andretti's replacements Scott Speed and Chaz Mostert), to take the crossover challenge.
Norris' skill in iRacing is well-known among drivers and fans of the internet racing world, but how he'll fare this weekend on a track he competed on a year ago in the U.S. Grand Prix, in a car he's never driven in real-life, is uncertain.
As Formula One has followed suit with IndyCar, NASCAR and other professional racing series' worldwide in creating competitive sim-racing platforms to capture fans' attention as they wait for real-life racing to resume, Norris was one of the early F1 drivers to join the fray. But due to untimely computer glitches each weekend – which ironically kept him from the start of Friday's media Zoom teleconference – the McLaren driver has been unable to complete a race.
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But so far in the new car and amongst a field of foreign drivers (to him, at least), Norris feels like he's fallen right into the middle of the fray, as drivers have conducted multiple days of testing and practice races in preparation for Saturday. During the Challenge's first two weeks of road course races at Watkins Glen and Barber, the field was far more spread out, largely along lines of heavy sim-racing experience vs. relative rookies. After two weeks of ovals at Michigan and Twin Ring Motegi for the IndyCar field, Norris said he still expects his general online racing prowess to set himself up nicely.
"It's close already," he said. "Especially for the guys who obviously haven't driven iRacing anywhere near as much as me, I'm in the fortunate position of it being something I'm very used to.
"But I think this shows that people who have been more on this, on (iRacing), are the faster guys at the moment. I'm sure it's going to be getting closer and closer once everyone learns the secrets and tricks of how to do it."
A year ago in his rookie F1 season as the new face of McLaren's post-Fernando Alonso era, Norris finished in the top-10 out of 20 drivers 11 times, including personal-best sixth-place finishes in the Bahrain and Austrian Grand Prixes. He finished seventh at COTA. That season followed a second-place finish in the 2018 Formula 2 series championship, where he finished on nine podiums in 24 races, and the 2017 Formula 3 series title that included nine victories out of 30 tries – all of which came with Carlin.
Those all came as Herta had jumped straight into the Indy Lights series in IndyCar with Andretti Steinbrenner Racing, where he finished third overall in 2017 (two wins) and second in 2018 (four consecutive wins). From afar, they've continued to admire what the other 20-year-old has continued to accomplish in blazing the trail and pushing the limits of what young drivers were thought to be capable of.
But does a rivalry still exist?
"I had some warning messages coming in from Colton's side. I don't know if I should read them out or not," Norris said with a laugh. "It looks like he's matured in quite a way, as I think I have in some ways. It looks like he's become an even better driver than what he was, and he was freaking fast.
"I'm excited."
Added Herta: "I think it's awesome. Obviously, I have a lot of respect for Lando. It's cool to see all these guys that are interested in running IndyCar and have the chance now virtually to do it."
Email IndyStar motor sports reporter Nathan Brown at nlbrown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @By_NathanBrown.