Adrian Sutil (German pronunciation: [ˈaːdʁiaːn zʊˈtiːl]; born 11 January 1983) is a German racing driver who competed in Formula One from 2007 to 2014.
Born and raised in Starnberg, Sutil started karting aged 14 and moved into single seater racing in 2002 in the Swiss Formula Ford series where he won the title. He moved up into Formula Masters Austria and started one race before stepping into Formula BMW ADAC in 2003. Sutil then raced in the Formula 3 Euroseries, where he was the runner-up to Lewis Hamilton in 2005. He went to Japan in 2006 to race in the All-Japan Formula Three Championship and also finished third in the Macau Grand Prix.
Having been involved in the Midland F1 test team, Sutil was promoted to a race seat for the new Spyker F1 team in 2007. Sutil continued to race with the team under their new guise Force India in 2008 where he remained until 2011. Having made his return to the sport in 2013 again with Force India, he competed in the 2014 season with the Sauber team. Sutil holds the record for the most career starts without a podium finish (128).
Adrian Sutil was born on 11 January 1983 in Starnberg, Bavaria, West Germany. His parents are both professional musicians: his German mother, Monika, and his Uruguayan father, Jorge. He has two brothers, named Daniel and Raphael. A talented pianist, Sutil speaks fluent German, English, and Spanish and a little Italian.
Karting and lower formulae (1997–2002)
Sutil started karting at the age of 14 before moving up to Swiss Formula Ford 1800 in 2002. He won all 12 rounds of the season from pole and added five wins in the Formula Masters Austria championship.
Formula BMW / Formula Three (2003–2006)
When Sutil moved up to the Formula BMW ADAC championship in 2003 he finished in sixth place in the series, but with no wins. The following season he stepped up to the Formula 3 Euroseries with Colin Kolles' team. Although he scored only twice, the connection he made with Kolles would prove useful in the future. He moved to the ASM team at the final round of the year.
Sutil stayed with ASM for 2005 and was joined by British driver Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton won more races than Sutil, but the German was runner-up to Hamilton and the Briton's only serious competitor in the championship and at the Marlboro Masters of Formula Three at Zandvoort.
Sutil missed the last two rounds of the 2005 Euroseries after joining A1 Team Germany for the inaugural A1 Grand Prix series. He raced for them at three events in Portugal, Australia and Dubai, his best result being two twelfth places.
Sutil spent 2006 racing in Japan and won the All-Japan Formula Three Championship. He showed a very strong performance all season. He also finished third in the Macau Formula Three Grand Prix and made a one-off appearance in Japanese Super GT.
That year also saw Sutil enter Formula One. In January, he was confirmed as one of the three test drivers for the new Midland F1 Racing team, along with Markus Winkelhock and Giorgio Mondini. This came thanks to his connections with Colin Kolles, who was then running the team.
Sutil appeared for the team as the third driver at the European, French and Japanese Grands Prix. By the time of his third appearance, the outfit had been bought by Spyker Cars. At the end of the year, he was promoted to second driver for the 2007 season, having been signed on a multi-year contract by the Spyker MF1 Team. In an interview with the Official Formula One website, Sutil's first 2007 teammate, Christijan Albers, commented that "Adrian is a good driver and he will be quick this year, but as a driver you should always be pushing to the limits without thinking what the guy in the car next to you is doing. But Adrian will be a good team-mate and it looks as though he's going to be a big talent [for the future]".
Spyker / Force India (2007–2011)
During 2007, Sutil out-qualified and out-raced his team-mate Albers at all Grands Prix before the Dutchman was replaced by Sutil's countryman Markus Winkelhock, test driver for the team up until that time at the European Grand Prix. Sutil out-qualified Winkelhock, although the latter went on to lead the race and restart after a sudden downpour. Winkelhock resumed his third driver role for the following grand prix at Hungary when Japanese driver Sakon Yamamoto took over the second team seat. Sutil out-performed Yamamoto in the race, passing Honda drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button.
In the Hungarian Grand Prix, Sutil was the first Spyker driver in 2007 to beat another running classified finisher, Honda's Rubens Barrichello.
For the Turkish Grand Prix, a B-spec car was expected for the Spyker team, but it failed a rear crash test and Sutil continued to use the older spec car. After fuel pressure problems, he was forced to start the race from the pits and finished five laps behind. At Monza, despite the introduction of the B-spec Spyker F8-VII and due to the nature of the circuit, the Spykers were largely uncompetitive once again and Sutil finished 19th, again only in front of his team-mate.
At the Belgian Grand Prix, the strengths of the B-spec car were fully evident with both Sutil and Yamamoto setting competitive times through the three practice sessions culminating in Sutil qualifying only half a second behind 16th placed man Vitantonio Liuzzi. During the race, Sutil passed the Toyota of Jarno Trulli, Hondas of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button as well as the Red Bull's David Coulthard, Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi and Williams driver Alexander Wurz. He ran as high as 12th before finishing 14th. He was highly praised for his efforts by both team and media.