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.

In the Hungarian Grand Prix, Sutil was the first Spyker driver in 2007 to beat another running classified finisher, Honda's Rubens Barrichello.

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.

[6] 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.

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.

Sutil continued with the team in 2008 under its new identity as Force India,[8] after briefly entertaining the possibility of a drive with McLaren or Williams.

[citation needed] The first two races of the season ended with mechanical failures[9] 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.

[14] 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.

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.

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 Belgium, he qualified 11th, although the main celebrations in the Force India pit were for teammate Giancarlo Fisichella's excellent pole position.

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.

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.

[16] 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.

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.

[17] 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.

A ninth-place finish in Valencia was followed by eleventh at the British Grand Prix, missing out on the final points-scoring position, held by Jaime Alguersuari, by just 0.6 seconds.

At his home race, Sutil took a season best finish of sixth place, after implementing a different strategy to some of the drivers around him on the grid, making just two pit stops to the three made by his rivals.

He retired at Monza after his car suffered a hydraulics problem, before an eighth-place finish in Singapore, holding off a late-race challenge from Felipe Massa.

[23] On 28 February 2013, Force India announced that Sutil would return to the team to complete their driver lineup alongside Paul di Resta.

After two non-points finishes he showed a respectable performance at the Monaco Grand Prix by overtaking the world champions Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button to finally end up in 5th position.

[1] For the first six races of the 2014 season Sutil struggled with a car which lacked pace and he also made a number of mistakes which lost him possible points finishes.

The following lap, Jules Bianchi, who had ignored the yellow flags, lost control of his Marussia at a high speed, crashing into the recovery vehicle.

Born in Starnberg, West Germany, Sutil is the son of professional musicians Monika, a German, and Jorge, a Uruguayan.

[citation needed] On the evening following the April 2011 Chinese Grand Prix, Sutil was involved in an incident with Genii Capital CEO and owner of the Lotus F1 team Eric Lux in a nightclub in Shanghai.

[38][42] On 13 January 2012, German prosecutors announced that Sutil would stand trial over the incident, charged with assault occasioning grievous bodily harm.

[43] Sutil was convicted of the charge on 31 January 2012, and received an 18-month suspended prison sentence, along with a €200,000 fine[44] that was to be donated to charities "of the court's choosing.

He was named as a defence witness by Sutil's side, but Hamilton did not appear in court because the trial coincided with the launch of his team's car.

[46] He stated he could attend a retrial, should one take place, as he would not be occupied on the scheduled day, but as a result, the friendship of the two drivers ended,[46] with Sutil branding Hamilton a "coward.