Last week Esteban Gutierrez was announced to be driving at Haas F1 Team alongside Frenchman, Romain Grosjean. After being absent from the racing grid for a year, some people believe Gutierrez has had his chance, and now shouldn’t be given another. However, there is a team of people arguing the opposite. The only way this can be resolved is by answering this question: Why did Haas choose Esteban Gutierrez?
Firstly, it cannot be denied that signing the 24-year-old Mexican is beneficial to the financial state of a team. Esteban brings a significant amount of funding from Mexican businessman, Carlos Slim, who was Forbes’ richest man in the world from 2010-2013. Due to this amount of funding, in the past, Gutierrez has also been dubbed as a “pay driver”, suggesting the only reason a team would sign him is to benefit from the funding he brings. This is not Haas’ lone reason for signing Gutierrez.
Furthermore, when Haas were looking to sign their drivers, experience was key. Gutierrez may not have as much experience as his teammate for next year (Grosjean) but it cannot be denied that he knows his way around a race car. After having driven for Sauber through the 2013 and 2014 seasons, Gutierrez landed himself a deal with the legendary Ferrari Team as their reserve driver. It seems that he has made the best of this opportunity in driving the car whenever possible. In addition to this, throughout the season he has mentioned how he has taken the opportunity to learn all he can from his teammates, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, who are both previous world champions.
Of course, Gutierrez’s time at Ferrari is another contributor to why he was signed. Haas has been called a sister team to Ferrari on several occasions through the year. This means they share a link, not only on the car parts they’re using but also in their drivers. It was expected that Haas would sign a Ferrari driver. This added a new category in the profile of the mystery Haas driver. A profile that fit Gutierrez perfectly.
Finally, no one can deny the power of support and this is something Esteban Gutierrez is swimming in. Not only does he have fans in his home country, Mexico, but he also has a following from around the world. Before announcing any drivers, Haas made it very clear that they would like to sign someone from North America to stick with their roots. North America geographically includes Mexico allowing the team to fulfil any hopes of links to their home by signing Esteban.
The lineup for Haas is one of the most exciting ones I’ve seen in a while and I’m sure Gutierrez and Grosjean will perform outstandingly together. I very much look forward to Esteban Gutierrez settling into the new team and showing us just how much he’s learned from his time with Ferrari.
