Formula One is music to Sutil's ears

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) Fate dictated that Adrian Sutil should become a Formula One driver rather than a concert pianist.

The 24-year-old German, who makes his grand prix debut with Ferrari-powered Spyker in Australia next month, seemed destined for a musical career until he discovered go-karts as a teenager.

The youngster was hooked. The genius of Beethoven and Bach proved no match for the roar of engines and the rasping of exhausts.

Sutil, one of a crop of rookies whose arrival in Formula One has accelerated a generational change after the retirement of Ferrari's seven-times champion Michael Schumacher, grew up in a very different world to that of his racing peers.

His Uruguayan-born father Jorge was a violinist in the celebrated Munich Philharmonic, his German mother Monika a pianist.

''I started piano when I was four years old,'' the driver told Reuters at Silverstone this week. ''I was very good at it. When I was 12 I had big, big concerts and I was on stage in front of a big crowd. This was my life.

''Then when I was 13 I got into karting. My brother took me to a karting circuit and I drove there and it was fate. I had the feeling that it was something I could do.'' HARD WORK While Schumacher's talents were honed on the karting track in his boyhood home of Kerpen, Sutil sharpened his skills in Munich. And, like his illustrious compatriot, he had bags of talent but precious little money.

''Every day I went to the karting circuit, every day for more and more,'' he recalled.

''My parents were not so happy. At first they were really shocked. They didn't give me any money so I had to find it myself.

''I started to work and it was good. It's always better to have no support at the beginning, to fight and get what you want,'' added Sutil.

''I did everything. I was always completely dirty. I cleaned the karts, I cleaned the track, everything. Whatever work you can do at 13 years old to get some free tickets and just sit in those karts.'' Like the young Schumacher, Sutil impressed enough people to secure the financial backing to help him move up the career ladder in a sport that has seen plenty of talents wither for lack of funding.

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