Adrian Sutil

Adrian Sutil (pronounced: []; born January 11, 1983 in Starnberg) is a German Formula One racing driver.

Biography

Sutil is the son of professional musicians Monika, a German, and Jorge, an Uruguayan. A talented pianist, Sutil started karting at 14 before moving up to Swiss Formula Ford 1800 in 2002. He won all ten rounds of the season from pole and added five wins in the Formula Masters Austria championship. Sutil speaks fluent German, English, Spanish and a little Italian.

Formula BMW & Formula Three

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 prestigious 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.

He 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.

Formula One

That year also saw Sutil enter Formula One. In January, he was confirmed as a one of the three test drivers for the new MF1 Racing team, along with Markus Winkelhock and Giorgio Mondini. This came thanks to his connections with Colin Kolles, who was now 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 season, having been signed on a multi-year contract by the 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]".

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 re-start 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.

Two weeks later in the rain at Fuji Speedway, Japan, it seemed Sutil had narrowly missed an opportunity to score Spyker's first ever point, briefly holding 8th position on the penultimate lap of the high-attrition race after Nick Heidfeld retired his BMW, but was almost immediately passed by fellow backmarker Vitantonio Liuzzi in the Toro Rosso and finished 9th, still a career-best. After the race it was found that Liuzzi had overtaken Sutil under yellow flags, and the 25-second penalty for the Italian promoted Sutil to the final points position. Toro Rosso appealed the decision, but the penalty was upheld.

Spyker were not competitive in the final two races of the year, neither of which Sutil finished. He has been praised by many for his performances in the 2007 Formula One Championship. Despite driving the most uncompetitive car of the year, the German rookie has impressed by not only dominating all of his teammates in both qualifying and race conditions, but also by challenging other drivers with superior equipment.

Sutil continues with the team in 2008 under its new identity as Force India, after briefly entertaining the possibility of a McLaren drive. The first two races of the season ended with mechanical failures.

While running in a very strong 4th position in the 2008 Monaco Grand Prix with 6 laps remaining, he was hit in the rear by 5th placed Kimi Räikkönen who lost control of his car while braking for the harbour chicane. A crash a few laps earlier had resulted in the safety car being deployed, with Sutil losing his considerable lead over the Finnish driver. Sutil's car suffered damage to the rear diffuser, and he was forced to retire. Mike Gascoyne called for Kimi Räikkönen to be punished over the incident. No punishment, however, was given. However, Sutil had overtaken three cars under yellow flags and according to steward Paul Gutjahr, should he have reached the chequered flag, he would have been given a 25-second penalty which would have dropped him out of the point-scoring positions.

Racing record

Season	Series	Team Name	Races	Poles	Wins	Points	Final Placing
2002	Swiss Formula Ford 1800	SSPT Racing	12	12	12		1st
2003	German Formula BMW	HBR Motorsport	20	2	0	86	6th
2004	Formula 3 Euroseries	Team Kolles ASM Formule 3	20	2	0	9	17th
2005	Formula 3 Euroseries	ASM Formule 3	18	1	2	94	2nd
2006	All-Japan Formula 3	TOM'S	18	3	5	212	1st
2006	Super GT	Toyota Team TOM'S	1	0	0	6	26th
2007	Formula One	Spyker F1	17	0	0	1	19th
2008	Formula One	Force India	15	0	0	0*	20th*

* Season in progress

Complete Formula One results

(F1 driver results legend 2) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	WDC	Points
2006	Midland F1 Racing	Midland M16	Toyota RVX-06 2.4 V8	BHR	MAL	AUS	SMR	EUR TD	ESP	MON	GBR	CAN	USA	FRA TD	GER	HUN	TUR	ITA				-	-
2006	Spyker MF1 Team	Midland M16	Toyota RVX-06 2.4 V8																CHN	JPN TD	BRA	-	-
2007	Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team	Spyker F8-VII	Ferrari 056H 2.4 V8	AUS 17	MAL Ret	BHR 15	ESP 13	MON Ret	CAN Ret	USA 14	FRA 17	GBR Ret	EUR Ret	HUN 17	TUR 21							19th	1
2007	Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team	Spyker F8-VIIB	Ferrari 056H 2.4 V8													ITA 19	BEL 14	JPN 8	CHN Ret	BRA Ret		19th	1
2008	Force India Formula One Team	Force India VJM01	Ferrari 056 2.4 V8	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	BHR 19	ESP Ret	TUR 16	MON Ret	CAN Ret	FRA 19	GBR Ret	GER 15	HUN Ret	EUR Ret	BEL 13	ITA 19	SIN Ret	CHN	JPN	BRA	20th*	0*