Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Super Licence!

Not real - do not print to use to race in F1

If you're an F1 fan, and have spent any time in the news this last week or so, chances are that the story of Colton Herta and the super license or lack of it has caught your attention.

While I knew of the existence of the super license as a concept, I hadn't ever explored exactly what it is, how you get it, and why there seems to be such an outcry around whether Colton Herta should or shouldn't be granted one.

Well, that was before I had a blog to write on the Dirty Side Deckchair!

So I put on my best Sherlock Holmes hat and went off into the wilderness of the world wide web to see what I could uncover.

Me getting ready for the blog

First things first; what exactly is a super license?

Well, actually I need to turn off my US spellcheck as, according to the FIA, it should be referred to as a Super Licence as it is issued by a European organization.

As you were guys, this one is allowed

That's hardly the most important aspect but we should start off on the right foot by spelling it the correct way.  I'm pretty sure the FIA read this blog so I wouldn't want to offend them.

It is the highest grade of racing license that the FIA can issue and the only one that allows entry into Formula 1.

Basically it is an essential thing to have in your wallet in order to race an F1 car.  

No Super Licence, no career in F1. 

OK, so we know what it is and how to refer to it but what are the items on our shopping list that we need to tick off in order to get one?

Well here is what you'll need to have in order to get your Super Licence:

1. The driver is at least 18 years old
2. They hold an International Grade A competition licence
3. They must have a valid driving license from their home country
4. The driver must pass an FIA theory test
5. The driver must have completed at least 80% of each of two full single-seater championships
6. They must have accumulated at least 40 Super Licence points in the previous 3 seasons

Let's break these down one by one and see if we can unravel the Colton Herta situation.

First off you have to be 18 years old.

Colton is 22 years old so we are one for one and off to a great start!

Next up, you must hold an International Grade A competition license.

The FIA has a tiered system of competition licenses that it can issue all from National grade B all the way up to International grade A with the grade of license dictating what type of race you will be allowed to enter.  

Just like unlocking the best cars in Gran Turismo, drivers need to accumulate racing experience to be allowed to upgrade their license.

Screenshot from the FIA website 

Herta holds such a license so we tick off requirement number two for him.

Next up must surely be the easiest behind simply being old enough which is holding a regular drivers license in your home country.  

Seems an odd one but I guess if you can't pass the level to drive a station wagon to the grocery store then maybe a career in F1 is probably out of your reach.

KITT is also covered by FIA regs

Well, Colton is going great guns here as the third step towards the Super Licence is in the bag.

The fourth one is the theory test.  

Now, I have no way of really knowing this but from what I have found online this is about as hard as the regular driving theory test.

So not hard at all.  Seems like it only exists to help weed out the ones who really shouldn't be in charge of a race car.

In other words if you know that FIA stands for Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile rather than Fast Incredible Action then you're probably on your way to passing the theory test.  

She didn't get her Super Licence

Don't know for sure that Colton would pass this but let's go with the sentiment online that any self-respecting racer will ace this test and give him four out of four.

Number five gets a bit more specific and states that you must have completed at least 80% of each of two full seasons of any of the single-seater Championships reported in Supplement 1 of the FIA regulations.

For Herta then he has this easily with his history over F3 and IndyCar.  There may well be other championships he has driven in that also count but either way he has number five in the bag.

Number 5 is Indy bag

With the previous five criteria all being met then it seems odd that the Colton Herta and the tale of the Super Licence is such a topic of conversation.

Well the devil, as they say, is in the detail and that detail is found in number six.

Applicants must have accumulated at least 40 Super Licence points in the previous 3 seasons.

Well Colton has been in Indy for 3 years so surely if someone like Mick Schumacher can get those points from F2 then Colton's Indy experience must give him at least 40 points right?

Wrong.

It all comes down to the way points are given out to each of the various series that are eligible for Super Licence points.  

In a bid to give more relevance to formats that will translate their driving experience & skills to F1, certain formats of racing have higher points on offer.  

For example, F2 has the highest number of points on offer for counting towards our Super Licence as opposed to something like, say, FIA Karting which rewards you very few Super Licence points.

If you win the F2 championship you get 40 points and you have criteria six in the bag.  Win the FIA Karting championship and you get 4 points and a very long way to go.

The issue for Colton comes with the points given for the lower positions in IndyCar.

First gets you 40 points just like F2 but then second and third in F2 also get 40 points whereas Indy this drops to 30 and 20 points respectively. 

Fifth in F2 gets you 20 points but over in Indy this is only getting you 8 points.

Calculating Super Licence points

This means that while winning Indy will be enough to get you the sixth criteria on our list, it becomes much harder for people lower down the championship than their peers in F2.  

In fact once you are finishing fourth or lower in the Indy Championship then you are even getting less points than those positions reward to F3 drivers.

As you can only count points won in the last 3 years then it becomes much harder to do this from Indy unless you are finishing in the top few spots each year.

There is no official reason given by the FIA but opinion across the web seems to mainly center around the FIA deeming F2 to be an official feeder series and also that Indy features too many ovals that will not translate into F1 skills.

Oval my dead body!

The ironic thing about this last statement is that Colton does not fare as well on the ovals and if you only look at his road and street results over the last 3 years then he would have enough points according to folk in the know.  

With 5 out of 6 being met, and the sixth being a contestable one this is why you are seeing so many column inches devoted to the subject of whether the FIA will make an exception for Colton and grant him the Super Licence despite his current three year total sitting at 32 rather than the required 40 points.

Will we see him in F1 next year?

I don't know, but what I do know is that I am much more educated about F1 Super Licences than I was this morning and hope you are too.

What fun it will be to share this knowledge down the pub with my friends.

They won't know what hit them...or will they be hitting me?