Esteban Gutiérrez

Esteban Manuel Gutiérrez Gutiérrez (Spanish pronunciation: [esˈteβan maˈnwel ɣuˈtjeres ɣuˈtjeres]; born 5 August 1991), is a Mexican racing driver. From 2011 to 2014, Gutiérrez drove for the Sauber Formula One team but lost his drive at the end of the 2014 season. He then signed with Ferrari as their test and reserve driver for 2015. On 30 October 2015, Gutiérrez was confirmed to drive for the new Haas F1 Team for the 2016 Formula One season.
In 2008, Gutiérrez won the Formula BMW Europe championship title, becoming the youngest Mexican driver to win an International Championship at 17 years old. He also won the inaugural GP3 season in 2010. With the Lotus GP team in 2012, he became the first GP3 graduate to finish in the top three of the GP2 parent series.
On 10 January 2017, Gutiérrez announced that he would be joining Formula E, for selected races during the 2016–17 season, with the aim of gaining a full time seat in 2017-18.

Gutiérrez was born in Monterrey, Nuevo León, the second of four brothers and one sister. His father Roberto Manuel Gutiérrez and mother Clara Gutiérrez are frequently seen at Esteban's races. Esteban shares the passion for karting with his brother Andrés, seven years older than him. Gutiérrez is part of the young talent program of Escuderia Telmex. Gutiérrez enjoys karting, motorcycling, golf, virtual races and skiing.

Karting

Gutiérrez started his career in 2004 in the Mexican Rotax Max Challenge when he raced in the last 3 events of the season. In 2005, he again competed in the Mexican Rotax Max Challenge, and also raced in the Grand Nationals in South Bend, Indiana, where he finished third, which earned him a place at the World Finals in Malaysia, where he finished 22nd due to mechanical problems.

In 2006, Esteban won all 5 races in the Camkart Challenge Mexico, and again he raced in the Mexican Rotax Max Challenge. He also finished 4th in the Mexican Grand Nationals in Zacatecas, Mexico.

Formula BMW Series

2007

In 2007, Gutiérrez made the step up into the single-seater ranks, competing in the Formula BMW USA series. He finished second overall in the championship, with 4 wins, 8 podiums, 9 pole positions and 3 fastest laps, earning him Rookie of the Year honours. Despite finishing second, Gutiérrez finished some 87 points behind runaway champion Daniel Morad.

Gutiérrez raced at the Formula BMW World Final in 2007, eventually finishing last of the classified finishers in 25th.

2008

Gutiérrez winning the 2008 FBMW Europe championship

Gutiérrez moved across to Europe to compete in the 2008 Formula BMW Europe championship, which was the championship's maiden season after the merging of the British and German series. He won the championship by 26 points from his closest rival Marco Wittmann, taking 7 wins, 6 of which consecutively, and appearing on the podium another 5 times. Out of the seasons 16 races, he only finished outside the points twice in the whole season and retired once overall, giving him a final score of 353 points.

In his final FBMW race, Gutiérrez qualified on pole and finished third at the 2008 World Final in Mexico City, beaten only by the current FBMW Americas champion at the time Alexander Rossi and Michael Christensen.

Formula 3 Euro Series

For 2009, Gutiérrez moved up to the Formula 3 Euro Series with a seat at reigning champions ART Grand Prix alongside Jules Bianchi, Valtteri Bottas and Adrien Tambay. He finished ninth overall in the championship, taking two podiums at the Nürburgring and Dijon Prenois.
He ended the season with 26 points altogether, putting Mexico sixth in the Nations Cup.

GP3 Series

2010 saw Gutiérrez move to the GP3 Series, competing for ART Grand Prix. He joined Pedro Nunes and Alexander Rossi at the team. Gutiérrez won the inaugural season with two races to spare by taking pole position, and the resultant two bonus points that came with it, for the final race weekend in Monza. Gutiérrez dominated the whole season as he scored 10 times out of the 16 races, with 8 podium finishes and 5 wins. He only failed to finish once during the last sprint race at Monza.

GP2 Series

2009

Gutiérrez was invited to the GP2 test in Jerez, Spain for the 2009 season on 6 October for ART Grand Prix, his first time in a GP2 car. During the morning session, he finished 11th fastest, and for the afternoon session, he finished 6th with a time just over half a second slower than the fastest time set by Jules Bianchi, who was also driving for ART. He was also recognised as the third fastest rookie of the day. Gutiérrez again participated in another test session for GP2 at the end of year test in Paul Ricard, France for Telmex Arden International. On the first day on 10 November, he finished 10th in the morning session, and 11th in the afternoon. He was called back for the third day on 12 November, and finished 7th in the morning session, and back to 11th in the afternoon.

2010

At the end of 2010, after winning the Inaugural GP3 season with ART, the GP2 sister team signed him for a full drive for the 2011 season so he participated at the end of year tests in Abu Dhabi throughout November. The first day of testing on 23 November was good for Gutiérrez, as he finished 6th in the morning session, and then followed that up by finishing 2nd in the afternoon session. On the second day, he finished 5th in both morning and afternoon sessions. After a 2-day break, the tests resumed on the 27th, with Gutiérrez finishing 5th in the morning session, but dropping down to 24th in the afternoon, giving him the 17th fastest lap of the day after driving the most laps of both sessions combined at 62. On the 4th and final day of the test, he achieved the 5th fastest lap in the morning session, but again dropped to 24th position in the afternoon, giving him 16th overall.

2011

After being signed for the team at the end of 2010, ART Grand Prix was renamed Lotus ART for the 2011. He was paired with Jules Bianchi for both the GP2 series and GP2 Asia series. He finished eleventh in the 2011 GP2 Asia series after taking a single 4th-place finish at the Imola sprint race, after failing to score during the other 3 races in the series. In the main series, he scored his first points with a 7th-place finish in the Valencia feature race after not scoring a single point during the rounds beforehand, and then he followed this up with his first GP2 series victory at the sprint race as well as setting his first fastest lap.

He eventually finished 13th in the drivers' championship after only scoring twice more including a 2nd-place finish in the sprint race at Hungary. He remained with Lotus ART for the 2012 season, with the team being renamed Lotus GP after the increased sponsorship from Lotus, and was partnered with James Calado.

Gutiérrez participated in the 2011 GP2 Final in Abu Dhabi on 12 November, which was supposed to be the starting round of the 2012 GP2 Asia series, but as the series was combined with the GP2 main series for 2012, it was made as a non championship round. He finished first in the practice session for the race, after setting a time that was 0.5 seconds faster than the nearest competitor. He had qualified in 8th position for the feature race, but he had to enter the pits in order to repair a damaged rear wing sustained when he was hit by Stefano Coletti at Turn 1 on the first lap and eventually finished one lap down from the race winner in 21st place. The sprint race was a different story however, after starting from the 10th row of the grid in 21st, he made an exceptional race out of it and finished 5th, even though he was down in 9th on the last lap, taking 2 points and finishing 8th overall for the Final.

2012

Gutiérrez follows teammate James Calado in 1st place out of the first corner at the 2012 Malaysian Sprint race.

Gutiérrez started the 2012 season with a double points finish at the first race in Malaysia including a second place in the sprint race. He followed this up with a third and another second-place finish at the first Bahrain round in the feature and sprint races respectively. However, after the Lotus GP drivers opted to sit out the practice session for the second round to conserve tires, Gutiérrez qualified poorly in 14th due to the difference in conditions, but eventually made up enough places to score a point with tenth, and then finished fourth in the sprint race. At the race in Catalunya, he managed another double points-scoring result with tenth and seventh-place finishes, and also the fastest lap in the feature race.

Gutiérrez's run of points-scoring finishes ended in Monaco where he was running in eighth position for most of the feature race before hitting the barriers several laps before the finish. He pitted for a new nosecone, but by then he was well out of contention for points and eventually pulled into his pit-box, but he was classified as a finisher since he had completed 90% of the race distance. His sprint race was considerably better, as a first-lap crash between ten other drivers enabled him to jump from 23rd to 12th in a few corners, and after consistently setting quick laps throughout the rest of the race, he once again made it into the final points-scoring position of eighth.

In Valencia, Gutiérrez qualified on the second row in third, before he was penalised for impeding other drivers and dropped two places down into fifth. During the race, Gutiérrez managed to make up a few places at the start and was running in third position for most of the race before the first safety car came out, leaving his team mate in first place the only one left to pit. A few laps later the race started again but there was another scrap which led to a second safety car period, where Calado finally pitted for fresh rubber bringing Gutiérrez up into second for the restart, where he dived down the inside of Fabio Leimer to take the lead and kept it until the checkered flag, giving him his first feature race win at the same track he won his first sprint race the year before. During the sprint race, Gutiérrez ran into the back of a crashed Ericsson on the second corner, where he was then hit from behind by Coletti and Valsecchi taking him out of the race and giving him his first retirement of the season.

Silverstone was to be another great round for Gutiérrez, where he managed to get himself up on to the second row of the grid after benefiting from near by drivers suffering from penalties, as well as his closest championship rivals receiving penalties too. For the second feature race in a row, he was again in the right place at the right time after pitting first of all the drivers and moving up to second before a safety car was released while the race leader, Leimer, had yet to pit, leaving Gutiérrez to inherit the lead and hold it long enough to finish first, giving him his second feature race win in as many races. He pushed hard in the sprint race to get back on the podium, where after climbing up to fourth from eighth, he out-braked himself trying to pass Felipe Nasr who was running third at time, and lost out to Johnny Cecotto Jr. and dropped to fifth position. However, he made a do-or-die overtake around the outside of Cecotto at Stowe corner, where his cold tires caused him to have tremendous oversteer and he careered off the circuit, and in his attempt to get back onto the track, he slid off the grass and clouted into the side of the Venezuelan who in turn smashed through a safety barrier and into a tire wall. Gutiérrez managed to limp to the line with a severely damaged car to take the checkered flag in fourth place. A few hours after the race, Gutiérrez was found to have caused an avoidable collision and was given a 10-place grid penalty for the next race.

In Hockenheim, Gutiérrez qualified down in 12th position, which was then 22nd with his penalty from Silverstone applied. For the feature race, he managed to make up many places on a drying track and was locked in a last lap battle for ninth with Ericsson before Tom Dillmann overtook the both of them leaving Gutiérrez to reclaim tenth and the final points position. For the sprint race he made a good start off the line and gradually took place by place but was unable to pass Fabio Leimer on the last few laps and had to settle for fifth. With only 7 points to his name, he failed to capitalise on championship rivals Luiz Razia and Velsecchi's short comings at the round. A week later in Hungary, he managed to qualify up in seventh position, and led the race with a 20-second lead at one point, but with a one stop strategy and failing to get up to speed after the pit-stop on his new super-soft tires, he finished down in eighth. Starting from reverse pole for the sprint race, Gutiérrez easily cruised to another series win by 3.5 seconds over Nathanaël Berthon with Razia a further 12 seconds behind, giving him his 3rd win of the season and keeping him in third place in the championship for another round.

Belgium ended up as his worst round of the season despite qualifying in third for the feature race. He had a good start and kept position but touched the grass while attempting to pass Rio Haryanto and slipped back into fourth. He did manage to pass his teammate down the hill from turn 1 but a first corner collision meant he passed under yellow flags which was under investigation for most of the race. A botched pit-stop where his rear right wheel stuck was only the beginning of his bad luck where a major crash caused a safety car period and then the race was red flagged a few laps later. Despite allowing Calado to re-take his position under the safety car earlier in the race, he was still deemed to have overtaken under yellow flags on the first corner and was given a drive through penalty, and despite racing back through the field, he finished 11th. During the sprint race, crashes throughout the first lap meant that championship rivals Razia and Valsecchi were out of the points giving him a great opportunity to catch up. He did manage to get up to eighth on the first lap, but while running in fifth, he made an over ambitious overtake around Les Combes on Julián Leal caused them both to spin into the gravel trap effectively ruining his race and leaving him in 13th at the finish line. The no points scoring round moved him down into fourth in the championship.

Monza did not go well again for Gutiérrez, as he qualified down in ninth, and then went on to finish exactly where he started, after being mugged of his reverse pole position in the dying moments by Colleti. The sprint race went no better, as damage on the first lap caused his front wing to lose a lot of downforce before he finally went straight into the wall around the Parabolica corner, giving him only his second retirement of the season. At the final round in Singapore, he was out of the running for the championship, but could still achieve third in the championship. He qualified in third on the grid and jumped ahead of a slow moving Luca Filippi up into second, where he stayed for the rest of the race as he could not get by Max Chilton. He took the fastest lap of the race giving him his third place in the championship back, but he was only 3 points ahead of Chilton. During the sprint race, both Chilton and Calado dropped out of contention for points giving him third place overall in for the season as he cruised home in sixth position.

His third place in the championship marked him the first GP3 graduate to finish in the top 3 of the GP2 series, with 176 points, 3 wins, 4 other separate podiums and 5 fastest laps, equalling Valsecchi's total for the year for most fastest laps of the season.

Gutiérrez first tested a BMW Sauber Formula One car in December 2009 as part of his prize for winning the Formula BMW Europe championship. Despite the team losing its BMW backing for 2010, he joined it as an observer for some race weekends and was placed on the same training programme as race drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi. Later in the season, he was officially named as the team's test and reserve driver on 10 September. On 16 November 2010 he took part in the young drivers test in Abu Dhabi setting the 4th fastest time of the day, just over six tenths of a second off the qualifying time set by Kamui Kobayashi.

He almost had his debut race for Sauber at the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix when race driver Sergio Pérez was still unwell from a crash at the previous race in Monaco. As Gutiérrez was the test and reserve driver for the team, he would have been selected to race instead. However, due to the timing of the event and a driver being needed by the end of free practice two, and the fact that he was in Mexico at the time, Gutiérrez was unable to take over the car and instead the team opted to use former race driver and McLaren test driver at the time Pedro de la Rosa, much to the despair of Gutiérrez who was said to be 'ready' to race.

On 28 July 2011, it was announced that Gutiérrez would remain as Sauber's reserve driver into the 2012 season. Gutiérrez again took part for the team at the young drivers test in Abu Dhabi on 19 November, this time setting 5th fastest lap on Thursday and 7th fastest overall, which was just over one second down on fellow Mexican Sergio Pérez's fastest time in qualifying.

On 26 October 2012, Gutiérrez participated in the first free practice session at the Indian Grand Prix, substituting for an unwell Pérez. He ultimately recorded the 20th fastest time in the session, before Pérez was able to return to the car for the second session.

Sauber (2013–2014)

Gutiérrez in the Sauber C32 during winter tests at Jerez, in 2013

On 23 November 2012, it was announced that Gutiérrez would remain with Sauber, but was to be promoted to the race team alongside Nico Hülkenberg, who would be joining the team from Force India. His first outing for the team was the Australian Grand Prix, where he qualified in 18th position after crashing during the first qualifying session which was eventually red flagged due to heavy rain. After a solid drive he eventually finished the race thirteenth, the best position of all of the 2013 rookies. In Malaysia, Gutiérrez made it through into Q2 and qualified 14th, and ran an uneventful race to finish in twelfth, after he was forced to pit with five laps remaining.

In China, he only managed to qualify 18th despite his teammate getting through to Q3. His race was cut short on lap 4 when he missed his braking point on the back-straight and pummelled into the back of Adrian Sutil, which resulted in his first retirement of the season. In Bahrain, he once again qualified down in 18th, and started the race last on the grid after receiving a 5 place grid penalty after his crash in China. After spending the race battling with quickly degrading tyres, he finished where he started, albeit, a lap down from the leaders.

Gutiérrez during FP1 in Malaysia

Spain was a turning point in Gutiérrez's short Formula One career. After getting though to Q2 for only the second time, he qualified in 16th where all the cars from 2nd to him were between a second of each other. Before the race it was found he had impeded Kimi Räikkönen in qualifying and thus he dropped 3 places on the grid to 19th. He had a very good race compared to previous results; he led the race for a couple of laps after the first stint becoming the 12th different driver in 2013 to do so, and had a close battle midway through the race with Jenson Button, but eventually after a late pit-stop and a charge through the field, he failed to pass Daniel Ricciardo over the last couple of laps, finishing three tenths behind the last point scoring position. He also achieved his first fastest lap of the race, putting him second in the record books for 'Youngest Driver to Set a Fastest Lap' after Nico Rosberg.

Gutiérrez at the 2014 Singapore Grand Prix

Gutiérrez achieved his first points-scoring finish at the Japanese Grand Prix; having started fourteenth on the grid, Gutiérrez made his way up the order and eventually finished the race in seventh place, holding off Nico Rosberg in the closing stages. On 21 December 2013, it was confirmed that Gutiérrez would continue with Sauber in 2014.

Having failed to score a single point during the 2014 season, on 15 December 2014, it was announced that Gutiérrez had signed for Ferrari as test and reserve driver for 2015.

Ferrari (2015)

Following his dismissal from Sauber in favour of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr, it was announced that Gutiérrez would serve as reserve driver for Scuderia Ferrari, in place of the late Jules Bianchi.

Haas F1 (2016)

Gutiérrez driving for Haas at the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix

In October 2015, at the Mexican Grand Prix, it was announced that Gutiérrez would return to racing in the sport alongside Romain Grosjean at Haas F1 Team.

Gutiérrez, in his first race for Haas at the Australian Grand Prix made contact with Fernando Alonso, flipping the McLaren driver and sending him flying into the barrier. The incident was concluded as a racing incident. At the Bahrain Grand Prix, Gutiérrez started in 13th and was running in 8th by the end of the first lap. He then retired shortly afterwards due to brake failure. Gutiérrez finished 14th at the Chinese Grand Prix, passing Nico Hülkenberg in the closing laps. At the Russian Grand Prix, Gutiérrez made contact with Hülkenberg, forcing him to pit for a new front wing. At the Spanish Grand Prix, Gutiérrez was in 8th until he was passed by Felipe Massa, Jenson Button and Daniil Kvyat in the closing laps, dropping him to 11th. Gutiérrez finished 11th at the Monaco Grand Prix, but crossed the line 12th, after being pushed out the way by Valtteri Bottas on the final lap. Bottas was given a five-second time penalty, promoting Gutiérrez back to 11th. At the European Grand Prix, Gutiérrez made contact with Hülkenberg on the first lap, damaging his front wing. At the Austrian Grand Prix, Gutiérrez finished 11th after Sergio Pérez had a brake failure and crashed out on the final lap. On the final lap, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg made contact. Rosberg lost his front wing and Pascal Wehrlein and Gutiérrez passed him. Gutiérrez attempted to find a way past Wehrlein for 10th, but Wehrlein just beat him to the chequered flag.

At the British Grand Prix, Gutiérrez fell behind the two Renaults of Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer, but passed them both in the closing laps. The Renaults then retired a few laps later. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton expressed his thoughts towards Gutiérrez after Gutiérrez failed to let him pass after being shown blue flags. Gutiérrez was given a five-second time penalty, demoting him to 13th, just ahead of teammate Grosjean. Gutiérrez felt Hamilton's actions were not acceptable, and that every driver should respect one another. At the German Grand Prix, Gutiérrez started 11th but fell down to 17th by the end of the first lap. He made a two-stop strategy work, and finished 11th again, behind Pérez. During the race, Daniel Ricciardo expressed his thoughts on Gutiérrez not moving out of the way when being shown blue flags. At the Belgian Grand Prix, Gutiérrez was given a 5-place grid penalty for impeding Pascal Wehrlein during free practice 3. He started 18th, and by lap 8, he was inside the top 10. However, when Kevin Magnussen crashed out at Eau Rouge, it brought out a safety car. Gutiérrez pitted and was stacked behind Grosjean just before a red flag and lost out to the top 10. Gutiérrez's finishes outside the top ten continued, with a 13th place at the Italian Grand Prix after qualifying in 10th, and another 11th place at the Singapore Grand Prix. It was then followed up by a dismal Malaysian Grand Prix, where a puncture on lap 1 dropped him down to 20th and a mechanical failure on the wheel forced him into retirement. At the Japanese Grand Prix, Gutiérrez qualified 10th but finished 20th after spinning in the race and failing to pass Carlos Sainz. His woes continued in the United States Grand Prix with another DNF, and a very low 19th place in Mexican Grand Prix due to braking failures. One more DNF saw no points at the Brazilian Grand Prix, and a 12th place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

On November 11th 2016, Gutiérrez confirmed via social Media he would be leaving Haas F1 Team. His best result was 11th place where he finished 5 times in total, scoring no points throughout the season. Kevin Magnussen was confirmed his replacement departing from Renault to make way for Nico Hulkenberg. Gutiérrez has now been confirmed to drive in Formula E in 2017.

On 10 January 2017, Gutiérrez announced that he would be joining Formula E, for selected races during the 2016–17 season, with the aim of gaining a full time seat in 2017-18. Gutiérrez first race will be the 2016-17 Mexico ePrix.

Career summary

† As Gutiérrez was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

(key)

† As Gutiérrez was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete GP3 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

† Gutiérrez did not finish the race, but was classified as he had completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

† Gutiérrez did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete Formula E results

• Fifth on the list of Youngest race leaders.
• Third on the list of Youngest drivers to set a fastest lap.