Esteban Gutiérrez

He’s the first rookie to be confirmed on the 2013 grid and the announcement has raised more than a little debate so its about time he had his own thread. Due to the fact he’s replacing a very popular driver who has had a fair rate of success, and the Mexican sponsorship the Sauber team has, his appointment hasn’t exactly been met with a wave of excitement and the words ‘pay driver’ can be heard being mumbled in dark corners of internet forums. I will have to say being a massive Kobi fan I was one of those mumblers but then I took a closer look at the stats.

Esteban Manuel Gutiérrez Gutiérrez (so good they named him twice) was born 5th August in Mpnterrey, Nuevo Leon Mexico. At 16 Esteban graduated from Karting to single seater racing by taking part in the Formula BMW USA series. He finished second in the series and at the tender age of 17 he packed his bags and was off to Europe for the Formula BMW Europe series which he promptly won at the first attempt. The following season he moved up to the Formula 3 Euroseries and by his standards had a rather average season and placed 9th in the championship. 2010 saw the beginning of the GP3 series which was dominated by Gutierrez from start to finish with 5 wins and 9 podiums. His GP3 title saw him earn a step up to GP2 as well as the Sauber test driver spot.

His first season in GP2 was hardly a run away success with him only scoring 15 points but it did see him take 2 podiums, a pole and a win so he did show some potential as well as getting some track time with Sauber in F1. His 2012 GP2 campaign started slowly but he was scoring points. It wasn’t until Valencia that he scored a victory and despite 2 more following in Britain and Hungary he was never really in the championship race. He did secure a clear third though which was obviously enough for Telmex and Sauber as he will be on the grid for 2013.

But the majority of people aren’t welcoming him with open arms because they see him as coming in and replacing a popular driver because of sponsorship reasons. Whilst there is an element of this it is an actual shame as Gutierrez has one of the best junior records of any rookie coming into F1 in recent years, he certainly has a better junior record than Sergio Perez, and whilst it might have been another year down the line there is no question that he would have/does deserve his place on the F1 grid and whilst his nationality probably plays a part in his appointment there are some other reasons you can see too. Throughout his junior career Gutierrez has had one thing that neither of the Sauber drivers have had this season, consistency. In his GP3 championship years he had 10 points finishes out of 16 – last year in GP2 he had 19 points finishes out of 24. It could be argued that if the 2 Sauber drivers had that kind of consistency then the team would have been able to secure 5th in the constructors championship. So if Esteban can convert his junior form into F1 then surely Sauber are laughing.

However I do worry for the lad as I can’t help but feel he’s on a loser unless he hits the ground running amazingly fast. With a team-mate with as much skill as Hulkenberg he’s going to have a difficult job of keeping up, add to that the fact he’s replacing Kobi and I can see the media and the fans turning on him very quickly if results don’t go well and it could dent his confidence.


I guess we’ll have to see which direction he goes in when he gets thrown into the F1 shark pool next year. What does anyone else think? Sink or swim for Gutierrez?
 
Haas ought to learn the lessons of Sauber's 2014. There is no way, given competent driving at Sauber that they should have been beaten by a significantly slower Marussia vehicle which did not even complete the season. The reason this happened is that whenever there was sufficient unreliability/chaos to create opportunities for teams such as Sauber, Sauber's two drivers were walking back to the pits.

The amount of Safety Cars caused by crashes involving Mr. Capri-Sun (just squeeze and suck, no need for glasses, which can be easily breakable :p) was ridiculous, and Kermit was no saint either. The opportunity for a seriously crap car to squeeze into the points was at Monaco (as proven by both Bianchi and Grosjean) - had Magnussen's crash damage been terminal then Ericsson would have edged his Caterham into the points too. Gutierrez had utterly amateurishly planted the barriers at the inside of Rascasse and was back in the shower.

In short, I'd go with JEV.
 
Mr Gutierrez will be back in F1 from 2016 and is already saying he is eyeing up a driver with Ferrari. Ambitious little Muppet frog isn't he?

I'm sure his addition will not be welcomed by most and I can't exactly say I'm cock-a-hoop about it either. Lets remember though that if you look at his junior career he was at one point considered a prospect and by his own admission was brought into F1 way too early. Maybe he's sharpened up whilst sitting on the sidelines? Maybe? Am I being over optimistic?
 
What has he been doing since his time at Sauber? I know he is a "test driver" for Ferrari but as there is virtually no testing its a pretty pointless job title. If he had gone off to DTM, WEC or Formula E and blown everyone away I could understand why Hass would offer him a job. Sitting inside Ferrari's overblown PS4 is hardly the sort of proof needed to get a drive in F1.

Ho hum, at least his website has lots of pretty pictures of him noncing about in Ferrari team colours at various races. He must be uber qualified to drive for Hass then.
 
Yeah but Ferrari took him back after than didn't they? and Mclaren took him back after he grassed them up too! He must have done something good whilst he was there for them to do that.
 
Will he keep his seat in Haas next year ? Now we know that VJ Mallya is facing charges of money laundering.. it might be time for Sergio Perez to move to Haas unless they've already lined up US drivers?
 
Basically we all need to cheer on Charles Leclerc in GP3 and we can get rid of him. Haas have made it quite clear they fancy Leclerc in the race seat but he needs to win the GP3 title in order to qualify for a superlicence. If he doesn't get it then I reckon they stick with Guttierez for another year.
 
Apparently Haas will not commit to driver line up until the European season over which gives them options

a) Should the sponsors need an American region driver then it is easy to swap Gutierrez for Perez unless they would consider Massa or Nasr to entice more South American sponsors

b) Should Ferrari want to see some young driver development then LeClerc is in prime position

c) I am sure Alexander Rossi has not been forgotten since he did win Indy500

so really Esteban's position is not great unless he outscores Grosjean !
 
a) Should the sponsors need an American region driver then it is easy to swap Gutierrez for Perez unless they would consider Massa or Nasr to entice more South American sponsors

Perez has already signed for Force India

b) Should Ferrari want to see some young driver development then LeClerc is in prime position

Haas have already made it clear they want LeClerc but as I said he won't have enough points for a super licence unless he actually wins the GP3 championship, even then I not sure they'll take him straight off. I reckon Guttierez has a good chance of having another year.

In actual fact he's stood up to Grosjean in quali better than expected.
 
RasputinLives That is what VJ Mallya has been saying about Perez but Sergio apparently saying he needs to think long term whether it lies with Force India or not. Did not Carlos Slim just to buy him out of his contract to get him to Ferrari?

The appeal of having Mexico's top driver would appeal to Haas and potential sponsors. I don't think Perez has a big contract that needs to be bought out expensively for him to move to another team

Remember Gutierrez was picked because the Mexican sponsors of Ferrari wanted a Mexican driver and lucky for them Haas had a seat available
 
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