Colton Herta has revealed he briefly entertained the idea of running in F2 in Montreal before hot footing it to contest the Indianapolis 500.

Herta had planned to make his IndyCar return with Andretti at the iconic Indy 500 at the end of May, taking advantage of an expected clear weekend in his schedule.

But the conflict in the Middle East saw grands prix cancelled in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, both events that F2 was scheduled to support Formula 1 at. These were later replaced by weekends in Miami and Montreal – the latter clashing with the Indy 500.

Asked if he had considered a back-to-back attempt, Herta told select media: “I had a lot of visions in my head of being able to do that but I kind of always knew it wasn't going to be able to do legitimately.

“You know, as far as the Indy side, you miss Carb Day, which is a very important day, and then even if it were to work, I think it'd be; it's difficult because, for me, F2 is the clear priority and Cadillac is the clear priority for me this year. That was just going to be a little bit of an added bonus when I had a bit of time off, but yeah, it wasn't meant to be this year.”

Five drivers have previously attempted ‘Double Duty’ with NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 and the Indy 500, with Tony Stewart the only man to successfully complete the 1,100-mile distance.

Drivers have previously commented that F2 cars feel unique, with limited crossover to modern F1 machinery. Believing the same is true between F2 and IndyCar, Herta does not feel an Indy 500 attempt would have harmed his primary season-long effort.

“I think it wouldn't be a distraction because it is so different,” he explained. “To drive an Indy car around an oval and then drive an F2 car around a permanent road course or street circuit, they're so different that it's easy to isolate the two.

“I think if there was some similarities driving an Indy car around the street circuit or something like that maybe it wouldn't be as positive because you can have these kind of micro things that you pick up and drag into the other, but because it was so different no I don't think it was it was a problem.”

F2 has never raced in North America before. Of the unplanned trip to home shores, Herta added: “It's cool. I hope we have a great showing and people enjoy it and it opens doors to have F2 back because it would be awesome if that was another thing that F2 did consistently.”