Insight: Has Gutierrez done enough to retain his seat?

Sauber last week announced that Adrian Sutil will join the team next season but they did not say who would partner the German.

Esteban Gutierrez will be hoping for a second chance, but much will depend on whether Sergey Sirotkin’s money and superlicence come through.

Did Gutierrez do enough this season to keep his seat? As part of our series of analysis of the head-to-head records of team pairings, here’s the analysis of the Mexican’s season alongside Nico Hulkenberg at the Swiss team.

It was a tough start to the year for Sauber but after the summer break, they unlocked the speed of the car and, in the hands of Hulkenberg, were able to get some impressive points scoring finishes.

Over the year, it was Hulkenberg who had the upper hand in qualifying. The German achieved a faster qualifying time 18 times to 1 and also achieved the best grid slot of third in Italy compared to Gutierrez’s best of ninth in Korea.

In the races, Hulkenberg was once again the stronger of the two, achieving 10 points finishes to Gutierrez’s one and finishing ahead 12 times to three when both cars saw the chequered flag.

When splitting the season in two, Hulkenberg retained his sizeable advantage in both parts of the year, heading the qualifying head-to-head 10-0 in the first part of the year and 8-1 in the second part.

Check out the statistics to see how Gutierrez struggled against Hulkenberg all season.

Hulkenberg v Gutierrez stats compared (highest respective tally in bold)

THIS SEASON

Qualifying

 Faster qualifying time: Hulkenberg 18 / Gutierrez 1  

Poles: Hulkenberg 0 / Gutierrez 0

  Front rows: Hulkenberg: 0 / Gutierrez 0 

Best qualifying finish: Hulkenberg 3rd (Italy) / Gutierrez 9th (Korea)

Races

Wins: Hulkenberg 0 / Gutierrez 0

  Poles: Hulkenberg 0 / Gutierrez 0

 Points finishes: Hulkenberg 10 / Gutierrez 1   