Gutierrez confirms Haas departure

Esteban Gutierrez has confirmed he will leave the Haas F1 Team at the end of the current season, ahead of Kevin Magnussen's arrival.

While yet to be officially confirmed, Magnussen has agreed a multi-year contract to join Haas in 2017, having turned down an offer from Renault, with the French manufacturer having since confirmed Jolyon Palmer as Nico Hulkenberg's team-mate next year.

As recently as on Thursday in Brazil, Gutierrez said there was a chance he could still be at Haas as discussions would take place over the weekend, but the Mexican has now taken to Twitter to confirm his departure from the team.

"Dear friends, I want to share with you that I will no longer be with Haas F1 Team for next season," Gutierrez wrote on Twitter.

"I want to thank all the team and staff, especially Gene Haas, for this opportunity to work with them. I wish them all the best. There are two races left, which I intent to enjoy to the fullest and as always, I'll give my best.

"Special thanks also to my fans and supporters, you will always have a place in my heart.

"I hope to shortly share my plans for the future."

With Renault and Force India confirming their respective driver line-ups this week, Gutierrez's only options in terms of a race seat in F1 next season are at Manor or a return to former team Sauber.

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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.