Esteban Gutierrez admits he was 'too confident' over Haas F1 seat

Gutierrez initially expressed full confidence he would be racing in F1 in 2017, but ran out of options once Haas signed Magnussen to partner Romain Grosjean, a move that was announced during last November's Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Mexican driver called the decision to replace him unfair, requested talks with Haas team boss Gunther Steiner, and also appointed ex-CART IndyCar driver Adrian Fernandez to be his new manager in the wake of the decision.

Having held those talks with Steiner "by phone" after last year's season-ending Abu Dhabi GP, Gutierrez says the situation still isn't "fully clear", but reckons he should have realised sooner that his seat was not as safe as he thought.

"The timing for me in F1 in general hasn't been great in the years I've been there - that, together with the fact I was too confident things were taken care of, created another difficult situation for me," Gutierrez told Autosport.

"There was a lot of energy put in by a lot of people to build up the team. It was tricky to have a full package for two cars.

"At the beginning of the season things started very slowly on my car - there were a lot of inconsistencies.

"That started to be something that led to miscommunication inside the team as to what the situation actually was, and why certain things were happening.

"In my opinion, certain things were not completely understood.

"The mistake I made was to be too confident that these things around were taken care of.

"I was too focused on the people that were specifically around me at that stage.

"Not that they did a bad job, but there was a bit of confusion around and I focused too much on the results.

"That's why things just took time and time, and by the time I decided to look after what was going on further around the team it was too late."

Gutierrez is planning to contest his home Formula E round in Mexico City on April 1 and potentially further races, and is also in talks with a top F1 team about becoming its test driver this year.

He says he has now moved on from the disappointment of losing his Haas drive.

"I still feel very grateful to them," Gutierrez added.

"How things developed through the year is still a bit unclear to me, but that's in the past and I don't carry that with me anymore.

"I don't regret how things were for me, but I now know how I can do things better.

"I take that experience and work for the future."