Former Formula 1 world champion Mario Andretti believes Ferrari reserve driver Jean-Eric Vergne would be the logical choice to take up one of the two seats at the Haas F1 Team.
It’s believed the Frenchman is near the top of the list after rating his chances as “pretty good”, whilst team owner Gene Haas recently admitted he and fellow Ferrari reserve Esteban Gutierrez are in the running.
Andretti feels Vergne was overlooked by Red Bull, who instead chose to promote Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat to the Toro Rosso sister team, whilst Vergne – who outscored Kvyat by 14 points last season – was forced to find a seat in Formula E.
“Jean-Eric is definitely a great talent, who was potentially overlooked [by Red Bull],” he told GPUpdate.
“He has experience in Formula 1, and he certainly showed his moments of brilliance at Toro Rosso, so for me he would be a logical pick.
“At this moment, of the drivers available, I don’t think anybody is better than Jean-Eric.”
Andretti is also excited to finally see an American outfit join the grid and believes it’ll do wonders for the sport in the US.
“I think it will be huge with fan interest, TV ratings and so on,” he added.
