Former Formula 1 driver Esteban Gutierrez has criticized the working methods of his former team boss at Sauber, Monisha Kaltenborn, and made her partly responsible for the poor performance that the racing team showed almost a decade ago.
Gutierrez made his Formula 1 debut for Sauber alongside Nico Hülkenberg in 2013, but was only able to score points in one race. Nevertheless, the team kept him, but in 2014 there was not a single point for him or his teammate Adrian Sutil.
Things didn’t go well for the racing team in the following years either: only in 2022 did they even get past eighth place in the overall standings. The Swiss experienced their greatest period of weakness between 2014 and 2017, when the team finished tenth three times in four years.
The team leader at the time was the Austrian Monisha Kaltenborn, a qualified lawyer who had taken over the position from team founder Peter Sauber. But for Gutierrez, Kaltenborn’s methods weren’t the right one because she couldn’t lead the team at a good level.
“There was a big discrepancy between what Monisha was doing and what the team needed,” Gutierrez tells formula1.com – knowing full well the team’s financial problems at the time.
Gutierrez also recognized this: “I have a business background and love dealing with how an organization works. And it was frustrating for me to see some of the aspects that were missing from the team’s work,” he says .
But of course he was employed as a driver for the team at the time and tried to focus on that. “But when you’re there and you’re concentrating on your work and you realize that things aren’t up to snuff in the operational area, that obviously left me a little frustrated.”
Many contracts for few places
And although Gutierrez had only finished in the top 10 once in two years with the team, they wanted to keep the Mexican and his sponsorship money for 2015. The only problem: Apparently they wanted to have lots of other drivers too.
Adrian Sutil claimed to have a contract for the season, and it was similar for Giedo van der Garde, who announced his retirement a few days ago. The Dutchman showed up at the team in Australia at the start of the season and tried to force his way into the cockpit – with success.
Van der Garde was right, but after reaching an agreement with the team he gave up his place – in the end Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr drove. And Esteban Gutierrez? He also received an offer from Kaltenborn.
In Austin 2014, the team boss called Gutierrez to a meeting and said that she would like to continue working with him.
Gutierrez didn’t want to be the fifth…
“I looked at her and said, ‘Monisha, how can you offer me a spot for next year? When you already have four riders under contract?'” said Gutierrez. “She looked at me: ‘Esteban, that’s not true.’ And I say, ‘I know it. This conversation isn’t going anywhere because I know what’s going on.'”
He saw that Sauber was going in a direction “that wouldn’t look good,” as he says. “And when I saw that with Giedo, I knew: That makes sense.”
Gutierrez took a year off and returned to Formula 1 for another year in 2016 with the new Haas team. He now works as an ambassador for Mercedes, where he previously held the role of reserve and simulator driver.
Monisha Kaltenborn was replaced as team boss at Sauber by Frederic Vasseur in the summer of 2017.