Techeetah have confirmed that Esteban Gutierrez will partner Jean-Eric Vergne for the rest of the season after they made the decision to demote Ma Qing Hua.
The Chinese driver has been totally outclassed by his team-mate this season, failing to score a point while Vergne has regularly been challenging for podium finishes.
While they have kept Ma on as a reserve driver, it came as little surprise that the team were willing to drop him from their race line-up.
Gutierrez had been expected to take a drive at Dragon Racing for the his home ePrix in Mexico, but Techeetah emerged as the front runners after it became clear that he would have a drive for the rest of the season.
Speaking after the announcement, Gutierrez said, “I’m very grateful to join Techeetah, a team with real competitiveness.
“After four years of an incredible experience in F1, I’m now taking a step forward into the future of motorsports.”
Gutierrez said he was looking forward to racing in front of a home crowd at the next round in Mexico City.
“I am especially excited about my debut race at the Mexico City ePrix,” he said.
“Hopefully I can put on a good show for the passionate home fans.”
Techeetah’s Managing Director Ivan Yim said he was also looking forward to seeing what Gutierrez could do in front of his home fans, and that the new driver line-up had helped motivate the team.
“With the passionate Mexican fans awaiting us in the stadium section, the Techeetah team is highly motivated with its new driver line-up,” Yim said.
“This is a challenging series for drivers with its compressed one-day format, but with stability in the team, we’re ready to take this next step to further build the Techeetah team in its first season.”
