Adrian Sutil

Adrian Sutil

Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	German
Entries	64
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	41
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	1
First entry	2007 Australian Grand Prix
Last entry	2024 Chinese Grand Prix
2009 position	17th (5 pts)

Adrian Sutil (German pronunciation: [ˈadɾjan zuˈtil]; born January 11, 1983 in Starnberg, West Germany) is a German Formula One racing driver.

Biography

Sutil is the son of professional musicians Monika, a German, and Jorge, a Uruguayan. He has two brothers named Daniel and Raphael. He weighs 165 pounds (75 kilograms) and is 6 feet (183 centimeters) tall. 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. He is close friends with Lewis Hamilton and is friends with fellow German driver Nico Rosberg.

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

2006

Sutil testing for Midland F1 Racing in February 2006.

That year also saw Sutil enter Formula One. In January, he was confirmed as a 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]".

2007

Sutil driving a Spyker F8-VII at the 2007 French Grand Prix.

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.

Sutil driving for Spyker at the 2007 Belgian Grand Prix.

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. 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.

Sutil driving Spyker F8-VII B at the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix, Spyker's last race

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 impressed by not only dominating all of his teammates in both qualifying and race conditions, but also by challenging other drivers with superior equipment.

2008

Sutil driving for Force India at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix.

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

While running in a very strong fourth position in Monaco with six laps remaining, he was hit in the rear by fifth 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 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.

On 17 October Force India announced they would keep Sutil for the 2009 season.

2009

Sutil and the Force India team started the year with a real optimism of points scoring finshes when the European part of the season started after the first four races. BBC commentator Martin Brundle expressed his personal view that:

"Adrian Sutil will need to be a lot more consistent in 2009 if he is going to establish himself as a bona fide F1 driver. [However,] Sutil can put a good race together and I don't think the Force Indias will necessarily be at the bottom of the timesheets this season."

In Australia, after starting from 16th on the grid, Sutil progressed steadily through the field to finish just outside the points in 9th place. In Malaysia, he qualified 19th and finished 15th when the race was stopped on lap 33 due to torrential rain.

Sutil driving for Force India at the 2009 Turkish Grand Prix.

In China, Sutil was running in 6th place with 6 laps remaining when he lost control of his Force India − due to aquaplaning − resulting in him crashing and forcing him to retire.

In Bahrain, Sutil was penalised for blocking Mark Webber during the first qualifying session. He personally walked into Mark's room to apologise for the incident.

In Spain, after running wide at the first corner of the first lap Sutil rejoined the track only to hit the Toyota of Jarno Trulli. The Italian had also run wide and was rejoining the track. This forced both drivers to retire and caused the two Toro Rossos of Sébastien Bourdais and Sébastien Buemi to crash into each other.

In Monaco, Sutil finished 14th and finished 17th in Turkey, after qualifying a career-best of 15th.

Sutil leading Fernando Alonso at the 2009 British Grand Prix.

In qualifying in Britain, Sutil went off at Abbey corner after brake failure in Q1. Qualifying was red flagged and as a result no one else could post a lap time. This meant that Sutil was to start from 18th on the grid, although the team had hoped that both Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella would get into Q2. Due to the damage caused by the accident he had to start from the pit lane because he needed to use a new car and a new engine, and went on to finish 17th in an uneventful race.

Sutil at the 2009 German Grand Prix.

In Germany, Sutil took advantage of the unpredictable conditions in qualifying, and secured his best-ever qualifying position of seventh. In the race, he was lying in second place for a while before his first pit stop. However, a collision with Kimi Räikkönen after coming out of the pit lane meant he had to pit again to replace his front wing. He finished 15th. It was the second time that a collision with Räikkönen cost Sutil the chance to score points, after the previous incident at the 2008 Monaco Grand Prix.

In Hungary, he was forced to retire after just two laps because a water temperature problem caused the engine to overheat, after qualifying 17th.

In Valencia, new aerodynamic upgrades for the VJM02 saw him qualify 12th, and he then raced steadily to finish 10th, demonstrating that the team were at last showing signs of competitiveness, as teammate Fisichella finished 12th behind Heidfeld's BMW Sauber.

In Belgium, he qualified 11th, although the main celebrations in the Force India pit were for teammate Giancarlo Fisichella's excellent pole position. Sutil finished 11th, while Fisichella finished less than a second behind Kimi Räikkönen's race-winning Ferrari.

Sutil at the 2009 Italian Grand Prix.

At the Italian Grand Prix, Sutil took his career best qualifying result of second place and finished fourth in the race behind Räikkönen, despite accidentally overshooting his mechanics during his final pit stop, but they suffered only minor injuries. He also recorded the fastest lap of the race, his first in Formula One and the first fastest lap recorded for Force India.

In Singapore, Sutil was forced to retire after he collided with Nick Heidfeld of BMW Sauber, moving into his path as he recovered from a spin. After the race, Sutil was reprimanded by race stewards and fined $20,000 for causing an avoidable accident.

Sutil during practice for the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix.

In Japan, Sutil took his second best career qualifying result of fourth, but was given a 5 grid place penalty along with Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello and Fernando Alonso for not slowing down while yellow flags were waved (due to a crash by Sebastien Buemi, who was also demoted five places for attempting to drive his badly-damaged Toro Rosso back to the pits) and started the race from eighth on the grid. Sutil finished 13th.

In the wet qualifying session in Brazil, Sutil qualified third, but retired on lap one following a collision with the Toyota of Jarno Trulli. Out of control on the wet grass outside Turn 5, Trulli hit Sutil, and then slid back onto the track and struck Alonso's Renault, resulting in all three being out of the race. Trulli blamed Sutil for pushing him outside the track at the fifth corner and thus causing the accident, and furiously berated the German at the side of the track in full-view of worldwide TV cameras. This time the stewards took no action against Sutil for the accident, while Trulli was fined $10,000 for his unacceptable behaviour. The matter was not resolved however, as Sutil and Trulli still argued about the accident two weeks later at the driver's press conference for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

In Abu Dhabi, Sutil was unusually off the pace, qualifying only 18th on the grid. Although he overtook several cars during the race, a poor pit strategy resulted in Sutil finishing the race at the back of the field, scrapping with Fisichella (who had joined Ferrari) and Renault's Romain Grosjean. The German eventually finished 17th, 1 lap down but ahead of the Frenchman.

2010

Sutil during practice for the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Sutil was in talks with Force India to renew his contract, and on 27 November 2009, the team announced that the German's contract had been renewed, while test-driver Vitantonio Liuzzi was given a full-time race seat. Sutil qualified tenth for the first two races of the year, but a collision with Robert Kubica in Bahrain and a mechanical failure in Australia meant he scored no points in either. However, Sutil commented that the performances proved that the team could now score points in dry races. This comment was backed up by Sutil's fifth-place finish in the following race in Malaysia. In China he finished 11th. In Spain he finished 7th and in Monaco he finished 8th. Sutil again finished in the points in Turkey with a 9th place.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2002	Swiss Formula Ford 1800	SSPT Racing	12	12	12	?	12	?	1st
2003	Formula BMW ADAC	HBR Motorsport	20	0	2	1	3	86	6th
2004	Formula 3 Euroseries	Team Kolles ASM Formule 3	20	0	2	0	0	9	17th
	Masters of Formula 3	Team Kolles	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	20th
2005	Formula 3 Euroseries	ASM Formule 3	18	2	1	3	11	94	2nd
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	1	N/A	2nd
2005–06	A1 Grand Prix	A1 Team Germany	6	0	0	0	0	38	15th
2006	All-Japan Formula 3	TOM'S	18	5	3	5	12	212	1st
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	1	N/A	3rd
	Super GT	Toyota Team TOM'S	1	0	0	0	0	6	26th
2007	Formula One	Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team	17	0	0	0	0	1	19th
2008	Formula One	Force India Formula One Team	18	0	0	0	0	0	20th
2009	Formula One	Force India Formula One Team	17	0	0	1	0	5	17th
2010	Formula One	Force India Formula One Team	12	0	0	0	0	35*	10th*

^* Season in progress.

Complete Formula BMW ADAC results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2003	HBR Motorsport	HOC 1 7	HOC 2 6	ADR 1 10	ADR 2 6	NÜR 1 6	NÜR 2 7	LAU 1 22	LAU 2 Ret	NOR 1 Ret	NOR 2 Ret	NÜR 3 6	NÜR 4 8	NÜR 5 3	NÜR 6 3	A1R 1 Ret	A1R 2 DSQ	ZAN 1 10	ZAN 2 10	HOC 3 2	HOC 4 Ret	6th	86

Complete Formula Three Euroseries results

(key) (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	19	20	DC	Points
2004	Team Kolles	Dallara F303/012	HWA-Mercedes	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 22	EST 1 Ret	EST 2 13	ADR 1 4	ADR 1 7	PAU 1 11	PAU 2 Ret	NOR 1 Ret	NOR 1 11	MAG 1 13	MAG 2 11	NÜR 1 15	NÜR 2 11	ZAN 1 15	ZAN 2 15	BRN 1 15	BRN 2 17			17th	9
	ASM Formule 3	Dallara F303/014	HWA-Mercedes																			HOC 3 20	HOC 4 Ret
2005	ASM Formule 3	Dallara F305/059	Mercedes	HOC 1 2	HOC 2 20	PAU 1 Ret	PAU 2 2	SPA 1 1	SPA 2 2	MON 1 2	MON 2 Ret	OSC 1 2	OSC 2 3	NOR 1 Ret	NOR 2 2	NÜR 1 1	NÜR 2 3	ZAN 1 Ret	ZAN 2 11	LAU 1 4	LAU 2 2	HOC 3	HOC 4	2nd	94

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2005–06	Germany	GBR SPR	GBR FEA	GER SPR	GER FEA	POR SPR 12	POR FEA Ret	AUS SPR Ret	AUS FEA Ret	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	UAE SPR Ret	UAE FEA 12	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	IDN SPR	IDN FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	USA SPR	USA FEA	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	15th	38

Complete All-Japan Formula Three results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	DC	Points
2006	TOM'S	Dallara	Toyota	FUJ 1 1	FUJ 2 4	SUZ 1 5	SUZ 2 3	MOT 1 3	MOT 2 1	OKA 1 1	OKA 2 1	SUZ 3 3	SUZ 4 3	AUT 1 6	AUT 2 3	FUJ 3 Ret	FUJ 4 1	SUG 1 3	SUG 2 2	MOT 3 Ret	MOT 4 Ret	1st	212

Complete Formula One results

(key) (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	19	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					–	-
	Spyker MF1 Team																		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
		Spyker F8-VIIB														ITA 19	BEL 14	JPN 8	CHN Ret	BRA Ret
2008	Force India F1 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	JPN Ret	CHN Ret	BRA 16		20th	0
2009	Force India F1 Team	Force India VJM02	Mercedes FO 108W 2.4 V8	AUS 9	MAL 17	CHN 17	BHR 16	ESP Ret	MON 14	TUR 17	GBR 17	GER 15	HUN Ret	EUR 10	BEL 11	ITA 4	SIN Ret	JPN 13	BRA Ret	ABU 17			17th	5
2010	Force India F1 Team	Force India VJM03	Mercedes FO 108X 2.4 V8	BHR 12	AUS Ret	MAL 5	CHN 11	ESP 7	MON 8	TUR 9	CAN 10	EUR 6	GBR 8	GER 17	HUN Ret	BEL	ITA	SIN	JPN	KOR	BRA	ABU	10th*	35*

^* Season in progress.

External links

• Adrian Sutil – Official Site
• Adrian Sutil career statistics
• F1Fanatic.co.uk – Who's Who: Adrian Sutil
• Adrian Sutil biography