page_title: Adrian Sutil
section_title: Spyker (2007)
hierarchical_section_title: Adrian Sutil / Biography / Spyker (2007)
caption_attribution_description: Adrian Sutil driving for Spyker at the 2007 Belgian Grand Prix.
context_page_description: Adrian Sutil is a German racing driver, who raced in Formula One for seven seasons: from 2007-2011, then 2013-2014. He drove for the Spyker F1 Team, Force India F1 Team and the Sauber F1 Team. He was also the reserve driver for the Williams F1 Team in 2015.
  Sutil started karting at the age of 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 1 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 3rd 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.
context_section_description: 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.
  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.
  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.
caption: Sutil driving for Spyker at the 2007 Belgian Grand Prix
exif: {}