The German pianist, turned racer broke in to Formula One in 2006 in a testing capacity with the Midland F1 team. Sutil's ride through the ranks included the Swiss Formula Ford Championship in 2002, a series he dominated with 12 poles and wins from 12 races.

A move to the German Formula ADAC BMW Championship followed with four podium positions and sixth position in the standings. 2004 saw him join Team Kolles in the F3 Euroseries and then the following season with Team ASM. Sutil was the runner-up in the championship in 2005.

Thanks to his connection with Colin Kolles, Sutil took part in three Friday practice sessions in the MF1 Toyota, while continuing to race in the Japanese F3 series. The Munich born driver won the F3 title with Tom's Toyota and did enough in his role as F1 tester to graduate to the role of race driver alongside Christijan Albers in 2007 in the re-branded Spyker F1 Team.

It would prove to be a strong debut season for Sutil as he completely out-performed the more experienced Albers before showing the way to Sakon Yamamoto in the latter stages of the season. Sutil would secure his first championship point at the rain hit Japanese Grand Prix at a time when the team was changing ownership from Spyker to Force India. Sutil had proven he has speed, but heading into the 2008 season, he had yet to shed the growing reputation of being accident prone.

Sutil was joined at Force India by Italian veteran Giancarlo Fisichella in 2008, the duo proving relatively closely matched throughout the year. Sutil however remained accident prone, contributing to his poor finishing record and his best result of 13th over the year. The highlight of his season however came at Monaco where he ran fourth in the final stages of the race before being taken out by world champion Kimi Raikkonen.

Heading into his third full F1 season in 2009, Sutil needs to iron out the mistakes and show the way to team-mate Fisichella if he is to have a long-term future in the sport.