Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsHaas F1 Team

Gutierrez used year off to adapt driving style

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Esteban Gutierrez says he made use of his year as Ferrari reserve driver to develop a wider range of driving styles in the simulator.

Having previously been at Sauber, Gutierrez lost his race seat at the end of 2014 and spent last year as Ferrari reserve. While pleased to be back racing for Haas this season, Gutierrez says he was able to work on his driving style in the Ferrari simulator to ensure he is more adaptive in to different conditions in 2016.

“The most important thing is that last year I was able to experiment a lot with my driving style in the simulator, and that gave me a pretty good knowledge of where I wanted to be and also develop different driving styles in order to adapt to different circumstances," Gutierrez said,

"I take every opportunity I can to be in the simulator. It helps in the development of the car’s setup, but also for myself. It gives me a wider selection of driving styles for me to adapt to any circumstance.”

And Gutierrez says China - where Haas struggled - was one example of a race where the work done last year benefitted him.

“You can influence the car with your driving style. You just have to adapt. If I have an understeering car, I do a certain driving style and the other way around if I have an oversteering car. We have a lot of tools too, as you can see on the steering wheel with all the buttons we have. We have some tools there at our fingertips where can try and fix it.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.