F1 News
Racing Point considered De Vries, Gutierrez and Vandoorne for Perez's vacant seat
Nico Hulkenberg is the replacement for Sergio Perez at Racing Point, but plenty of others were also considered. Racing Point first went to the Mercedes reserves, Toto Wolff says.
After Perez tested positive for coronavirus, Racing Point had to look for a replacement. Officially the spare drivers of Mercedes are also those of Racing Point. So it's not surprising that the thoughts of many first went out to Estebam Gutierrez and Stoffel Vandoorne.
"They've looked at our options, but Stoffel and Nyck de Vries are in Formula E and so we can't make that possible now,'' Toto Wolff told Sky Sports. Formula E will start again on Wednesday with the last six races of the season and Vandoorne and De Vries will have to focus completely on that restart.
Gutierrez is the other reserve of Mercedes who also enters the simulator a lot, but the Mexican was not a popular option for Racing Point. Gutierrez hasn't driven an F1 car for years and didn't even drive the current generation of cars. Preference was therefore given to the former driver of Force India: Hulkenberg.