Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has all but confirmed that Esteban Gutierrez will partner Nico Hulkenborg at Sauber next season. If the report is true it means that Japan's Kamui Kobayashi will be without an F1 drive for next season.
Gutierrez is part of Sauber's young driver programme and is the team's test and reserve driver. He had his first official outing for the team during Practice for the Indian GrandPrix last month. With Sergio Perez heading to McLaren next season, Carlos Slim's company Telemex who is a team sponsor has said stated they will stay with team next year.
I believe that the company would not have committed to the team for another season if they did not have a Mexican driver in place with the team.
I believe that if the reports are true it is going to be an extremely interesting season for the Sauber F1 team in 2013 as they have two new drivers. Hulkenborg has an awful lot of F1 experience having driven for Williams and Force India so if Esteban is joining Sauber the Hulk will be able to pass on his knowledge to the young Mexican.
So it is going to be extremely interesting to see what happens. If Kobayashi loses his Sauber seat I could see him replacing Vitaly Petrov at Caterham next year as it is being reported that the Russian driver has been unable to come up with the funding needed to keep his drive with the Caterham team.
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