Coyne wants to run Gutierrez on IndyCar ovals

Gutierrez won the GP3 championship in 2010 and finished third in GP2 in 2012, before spending three seasons racing in Formula 1 and one as Ferrari’s test driver.

The Mexican this weekend is driving the #18 Dale Coyne Racing-Honda in the Verizon IndyCar Series double-header in place of Sebastien Bourdais who was injured in qualifying for the Indianapolis 500.

Although Coyne told Motorsport.com there were several potential candidates for the ride, with Gutierrez, Oriol Servia and James Davison (who subbed for Bourdais at Indy) as the favorites, he’s now hoping to have Gutierrez in the car until Bourdais is able to return.

Coyne said: “It’s not just a one-event deal. He’ll do more – ovals as well. He wants to be here, he wants to be in IndyCar.

“We didn’t have a lot of time to get the deal done,” he continued. “Adrian [Fernandez, former Indy car race winner] contacted me about a driver before Indy, and I didn’t know who the driver was at that stage.

“So I contacted him to see who it was and when he told me, I thought, ‘OK, he’s got a good résumé, so it fell into place pretty quickly.”

Although Gutierrez finished his first practice session in 21st, Coyne said he was happy with his progress so far, saying: "Yeah, good job – kept his nose clean, got quicker each lap.”

Gutierrez also keen for longer term deal

Gutierrez confirmed to IndyCar media that he is interested in continuing in IndyCar for the remainder of 2017, despite the fact three races clash with his Formula E commitments for Techeetah.

“So far I'm enjoying it a lot,” he said. “Hopefully I can do the rest of the season. This is what I want. So yeah, hopefully we can get things organized so that everything goes forward.

“We just arrived here two days ago. But yes, I mean, it seems that it's very nice to come back to America from 2007 when I was racing Formula BMW here. I know very well tracks like Road America, which is one of my favorite tracks in the world, and I'm very keen to hopefully have the chance to race there again with an IndyCar in the following races.”

Asked if he’d rather be racing at F1’s Monaco Grand Prix or the Indianapolis 500 next year, Gutierrez responded: “That's a really good question. I would love to try the Indy 500. I watched the race, and it's a real racing race. It's pure driving, pure racing. It requires so many factors.

“I mean… I know Fernando [Alonso] very well, so I could see a smile on his face all the time, so I could realize that it's something I have to try.”

Gutierrez added: “My approach this weekend is to learn. Considering that I have not driven the car yet before this weekend, now that I drove in Practice 1, I feel much better than what I expected. I mean, obviously I was a little bit intrigued about what was going to be the feeling, but actually I'm enjoying it a lot, and I think that's the most important.

“So I'll take it step-by-step very progressively, no mistakes, just enjoying the experience, and the speed will come naturally. It may take a few races, may take a few sessions, I don't know, but as long as it comes natural and I'm enjoying it, I'm sure the speed will be there.

“I mean, to have this amount of bumps, you know, the changes of the surface, you have concrete, you have asphalt, you have – everything is changing so the tires are reacting differently, so obviously it's another factor on top of learning the car

Gutierrez added that he would be very interested in adding IndyCar’s oval races to his schedule.

“Hopefully I have the chance that I can at least do a test day before that,” he said, “so that will be important for me to get a feeling.

“It's completely new to me, but I'm very keen to learn and to go there and try out. I mean, I'm a racer. I like challenges, so that's what I'm looking forward to.”

Additional reporting by Steve Wittich