Adrian Sutil
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Adrian Sutil (born January 11, 1983 in Starnberg) is a German formula one race car driver for the Force India formula one team. Among the crop of Formula One racers, Sutil probably has the most unique racing background not only because he was not able to race kart at a young age, but also because of his initial career as a concert pianist prior to racing. Since getting himself into go-karting, there was no turning back for the Gräfelfing native.
As skilled as he is with the black and white keys, Sutil was equally talented with the motor vehicles as he has bagged various racing titles in his young career and even earned compliments from his former F3 teammate Lewis Hamilton. Sutil is also praised for his resilience and ability to bounce back, winning the Japanese F3 Championship after being outraced by teammate Hamilton in F3.
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Personal Life
Adrian Sutil (pronounced: ['adɾjan su'til]) is the son of professional musicians Monika, a German, and Jorge, an Uruguayan and has a couple of brothers, namely Daniel and Raphael. His father Jorge, a violinist, migrated from Uruguay to Germany at the age of 28 and was part of the Müncher Philharmonie for quite some time. Coming from a musical family, Adrian learned to play piano at a very young age of four and soon after, he was already playing the instrument publicly. But his dream has always been racing in Formula One and now, he considers the sound of engines as music in his ears.
Adrian is multingual who can speak in his native language German, English, Spanish, and some Italian. During his spare time, the 6-foot, 165-pound Sutil loves to play piano and billiards.
Early Career
Sutil made his transition from music to motorsport with the "kindergarten" of motorspot, go-karts, at the age of 14. In 2000, he placed 3rd in the German ICA Championship with PCR Germany before joining Birel Motorsport the following year, leading the team to its lone pole in the Kart European Championship. Sutil later moved on to Swiss Formula Ford 1800 in 2002 leading the SSPT Racing to the championship with 10 pole positions and 10 wins in 10 races. He also added five wins in the Formula Masters Austria championship.
Formula BMW & Formula Three
His remarkable performance in 2002 prompted his jump to the German Formula BMW Championship in 2003. Unfortunately, he struggled in his stint with Team HBR Motorsport and managed only a sixth place finish with 2 poles and 4 podiums. Despite a winless stint, Sutil's performance was enough to land him a spot at the Formula 3 Euro Series with Team Kolles for 2004. He ended that season 17th in the standings, managing to score only twice with Colin Kolles' team. He moved to Team ASM F3 for the final two races then maintained his spot with the team for 2005 where he was paired with future Formula One and British driver Lewis Hamilton. The tandem basically dominated the competition, with Hamilton raking in more wins with 15 and eventually the championship as well as the prestigious Marlboro Masters of Formula Three at Zandvoort. For his part, Sutil managed two wins and a second place overall finish, despite skipping the last two events of the 2005 Euroseries to compete in the A1 Grand Prix and represent A1 Team Germany. As A1GP concluded, Sutil's best finishes were a couple of 12th placers after racing for three events held in Portugal, Australia and Dubai.
Sutil's last year prior to his Formula One jump was spent in Japan, racing in the All-Japan Formula Three Championship where he won the title with the TOM's Toyota team. He also placed third in the Macau Formula Three Grand Prix despite racing on the "less regarded" Dallara-Toyota package of the TOM's which was believed to be less powerful compared to the competition's Mercedes and Mugen engines.
Entry to Formula One
In January of 2006, Sutil earned test driving duties at Midland MF1 Team---who was ran by former boss Colin Kolles---joining Markus Winkelhock and Giorgio Mondini in the lineup. As driver of the team's third car, Sutil registered some pretty promising times at the Nurburgring, Magny-Cours and Suzuka Friday practice sessions. Behind the wheels of the M16, Sutil managed a seventh overall finish at the French Grand Prix while also setting the 10th best time in the Friday practices for the European GP. Later that year, Midland F1 was bought by Spyker Cars and Sutil was eventually signed to a multi-year contract after being promoted to be the second driver of the team in place of Tiago Monteiro.
Spyker F1 (2007)
Prior to the season, Sutil's present teammate Christijan Albers said in an interview 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]". Sutil's past teammate Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, predicted that Sutil will give Albers a hard time in his first full season in Formula One. True enough, Sutil was able to outpace Albers in every Grands Prix that both drivers raced together, with Sutil finishing 17th in his F1 debut at the Australian Grand Prix, 15th in Bahrain, 13th in Spain, 14th in USA, and 17th in France. Albers was eventually replaced by Markus Winkelhock, whom Sutil outqualified in the European GP but trailed to during the race (with both eventually retired).
Sutil was paired with another partner at the Hungarian Grand Prix in the form of Sakon Yamamoto after Winkelhock was "demoted" to test driving duties. Sutil also outpaced Yamamoto and even went on to pass Honda's pair of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, thus earning the distinction as the first Spyker driver that season to beat a classified finisher in Barrichello. Sutil finished that race in 17th place while Barrichello was 18th. In the next round at the Turkish Grand Prix, the team encountered some problems when there planned B-spec car failed a rear crash test and Sutil was forced to utilize the previous vehicle. Fuel pressure problems sent Sutil at the pits during the start of the race and finished five laps behind, ending the race in 21st place.
The team was finally able to race the Spyker F8-VIIB at the 2007 Italian Grand Prix, but the result was not desirable with Sutil finishing at a distant 19th, just ahead of Yamamoto at #20. The team did farely well at the next race in Belgium, as Sutil managed to pass more established teams and drivers Jamo Trulli of Toyota, Barrichello and Button of Honda, David Coulthard of Red Bull, Vitantonio Liuzzi of Toro Rosso and Alexander Wurz of Williams to reach as high as 12th place before ending the race at #14. Yamamoto for his part finished at 17th.
In the Japanese Grand Prix held at the Fuji Speedway, Sutil barely scored his first career point, as well as Spyker's when the final result was changed after the race. As the event concluded, Toro Rosso's Liuzzi was able to pass Sutil for the 8th spot, but then the decision was overruled when it was found that Liuzzi passed Sutil under yellow flags, costing him a 23-second penalty that eventually promoted the German to 8th place and a 1-point finish. The decision stuck inspite of Toro Rosso's appeal, formally securing Sutil's F1 score.
Despite a poor finish in the final two races at the Chinese and Brazilian Grands Prix, Sutil has been complimented for his remarkable work after outqualifying and outracing all of his teammates, and despite a more inferior equipment, has given the more prominent teams a run for their money on the race track.
Force India (2008)
Sutil decided to stay with the Force India team after briefly contemplating a stint with the renowned McLaren team. Sutil debuted Force India's 2008 car, the VJM01, at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain and finished 9th in a field of 19 with a time of 1:23.091 in 62 laps of testing.
Results and Records
Career Summary
| 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 |
| 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 |
Complete Formula One Results
| 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 Formula One Team | Force India F8-VII | Ferrari 056 2.4 V8 | AUS | MAL | BHR | ESP | TUR | MON | CAN | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | EUR | BEL | ITA | SIN | CHN | JPN | BRA |
References
- Adrian Sutil Crash.Net Profile
- Adrian Sutil Wikipedia
- Adrian Sutil: Precocious Pianist Quits Concert Hall for Formula 1 Race Track
- Sutil 9th in final pre-season testing
