Ferrari has signed Esteban Gutiérrez as its test and reserve driver for the 2015 season. Bit of a unusual one but there we go
Considering they also signed Perez, and the hilariously tiny role most reserve and test drivers play, I'm going to suggest this is more to do a couple of filming days for the Mexican market than a serious show of faith.
I didnt believe it when I first read it and still think its a very strange signing for such a marque brand.
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Pretty much. He'll do one filming day ay Mugello and basically hang around at Race weekends just in case they need somebody in the car with no notice for whatever reason. That's pretty much it. Publicity. There's not a hope in hell they will be giving him fp1's even.
Not the best backup plan for when Kimi inevitably gets distracted by a start up in the ice cream trade.
If they need somebody for more than one race, they'll wheel somebody else in. A bit like Lotus did with Kovalainen when they had Valsecchi waiting in the wings for a chance.
The cynic may question whether Ferrari are not quite in such rude financial health as they once were. Lots of behind the scene issues with Fiat at the moment.
Not even if it's for more than one race - Sauber brought in de la Rosa when Perez got injured (and you'll never guess who their reserve driver was)
What's happening with their Santander sponsorship i wonder? will it carry on or go with Alonso? They carried on at McLaren even when Alonso left so i'd assume they'd stay but on reduced terms. Gutierrez? (i think.....)
Ferrari Is a useful tool for marketing their brand in their key markets I cant see why they would ditch them.
To be fair, with the terrible Sauber, Gutierrez had quite a good season imo.. Much better than last anyway. Plus, he was pretty much always ahead of Sutil, who's known to be a decent midfield driver. He's not world championship material for sure, but he's good enough to be in a half decent car and certainly better than a quite a few in 2015
Slightly off topic....there is a rumour out there that Dean Stoneman may be a red bull junior. Ok bit old to be called a junior but given his fight with cancer he can be forgiven for being late to the party.
Now that Max has joined they probably need someone to raise the average age a little. He looked very good in GP3 so if true that'd be really good. Hope he does well whatever happens.
Disagree with this totally. Well apart from the Sauber being terrible. The only reason he may have looked better overall than before was the car was more or less at his level and he had an average team mate who wasn't talented enough to consistently extract more than he could. Sutil is a very average driver at best, on a good day. But even still, Sutil, when the car was just about as close to ok as it was all season, took the car in quali to places Gutierrez couldn't. Not quite sure where the "pretty much always ahead of Sutil" thing comes from, considering they were relatively equal in races.... though it's worth noting Gutierrez retired in one less race and the ones he did finish ahead in where both cars finished, every one was by 1 position whereas on a few occasions when Sutil finished ahead, it was by 4 or 5 positions. Taking car failures out of the equation, Sutil won 5-4. Sutil also beat Gutierrez 12-7 in Quali. Struggling to think of a single driver that will be on the grid next year (rookies aside, who we don't know how they will fare) who i would drop for him. The only one who is close is the guy replacing him, Ericsson who IMO showed more in his last 5 or 6 races in a worse car than Gutierrez has ever had than Esteban has in 2 years. So nope.
Interesting that Andrea Stella is to join McLaren to be Alonso's engineer. Vettel will have his former Toro Rosso engineer. Ferrari have also "moved" Antonio Spagniolo away from Kimi and are giving him another new engineer (rumored to be Dave Greenwood, formerly chief engineer at Marussia)
Yeah, I agree with you, Fred. I think Gutiérrez is better than he has been given credit for. When he started in 2013, he wasn't quite ready for F1 but as the season progressed he really started showing promise. Of course, all that was pretty much killed stone dead in 2014 in that terrible car with a lousy engine. Because he already had a bad rep. from his first races in 2013, all this did was appear to prove the naysayers correct. And let's not forget, the 2013 Sauber wasn't a patch on the 2012 car that served Pérez so well. As you say, most likely not championship material but in a less desperate era he'd probably have been given the chance to develop. Of course, over the years there are many other drivers I could say similar about but, on the other hand, his former team mate Hulk, who is WDC material, still only has a half-decent car simply because he's tall and recent rules on weight have worked against him. Anyway, for these reasons, I don't see that Esteban's signing by Ferrari is such a bizarre move.
