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Gutierrez accused of breaching Techeetah contract
An alleged breach of contract between Esteban Gutierrez and the Techeetah Formula E team has been referred to the FIA International Tribunal.
Sam Smith Scott Mitchell
Edited: Jun 9, 2017, 4:05 PM
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Ex-Formula 1 driver Gutierrez joined Techeetah for the Mexico City ePrix in April and raced for the team in Monaco and Paris as well.
He was then announced as the replacement for the injured Sebastien Bourdais at the Dale Coyne Racing IndyCar team and made his series debut in the Detroit round last weekend.
Gutierrez and Coyne expressed an interest in striking a deal for the remainder of the IndyCar season, which would include clashes with the final three FE rounds – starting with this weekend’s Berlin double-header.
As a result, last Saturday Techeetah announced it would replace Gutierrez with Stephane Sarrazin with immediate effect.
The team was then investigated by Formula E stewards in Berlin on Friday, because it had changed its driver less than two weeks before the race – a breach of Article 19.1 of the series’ sporting regulations.
Techeetah claimed the change was a case of force majeure as Gutierrez had “breached his contract…and decided to compete in another series, which conflicted with Formula E”, according to stewards.
The stewards’ report confirmed no further action would be taken by Techeetah but said they would “refer this alleged breach of contract to the FIA International Tribunal”.
Techeetah would not make an official comment on any action between it and Gutierrez when approached by Motorsport.com on Friday.
Venturi fined for late driver change
A similar investigation into the Venturi team, which released Sarrazin to join Techeetah and named Tom Dillmann as his replacement, ended in a €5000 fine for the Monegasque team.
Motorsport.com understands that Sarrazin was considered by Techeetah back in March, when Gutierrez seemed destined to race for the Faraday Future Dragon Racing team in place of Loic Duval.
The Mexican undertook a seat fitting with Dragon, but the situation changed when Techeetah was able to stand down Ma Qing Hua and replace the Chinese driver with Gutierrez for the Mexico City ePrix in April.
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