Esteban Gutierrez looks poised to see out the remainder of the Verizon IndyCar Series season with Dale Coyne Racing after the Techeetah Formula E team signed Stephane Sarrazin to his seat.
Gutierrez moved into Formula E after losing his Formula 1 drive at the end of last year, racing in Mexico City, Monaco and Paris with Techeetah.
The Mexican will make his IndyCar debut in Detroit this weekend with Dale Coyne Racing in place of the injured Sebastien Bourdais, who is out of action until at least the season finale at Sonoma on September 17.
Team owner Dale Coyne confirmed on Friday that he planned for Gutierrez to see out the season despite three Formula E schedule clashes in the next two months.
On Saturday, Sarrazin was confirmed to be leaving Venturi for the remainder of the Formula E campaign, joining Techeetah in place of Gutierrez.
Venturi will replace Sarrazin with Tom Dillmann, who made his Formula E debut in Paris last month in place of Maro Engel, who was tied up with DTM duties.
“A positive solution for all those involved,” Venturi team principal Gildo Pallanca Pastor said. “With his experience, Stephane will be embraced by Techeetah and at the same time, the season will offer Tom the chance of gathering further important experiences with Venturi.
“This means that all the three Venturi joint drivers, Maro Engel, Stephane Sarrazin and Tom Dillmann will contest the coming championship rounds in Berlin, New York and Montreal.”
As noted by my colleague Tony DiZinno, this was the penultimate hurdle for Gutierrez to clear if he wants to enter the remaining races on the IndyCar calendar, with the final task being an oval test ahead of next weekend’s Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Frees up GUT for remaining Indy races. All that's left to sort now would be an oval test. https://t.co/RP062LfDaN
— Tony DiZinno (@tonydizinno) June 3, 2017