Adam Carroll (born 26 October 1982) is a British professional racing driver. He last raced in the 2016–17 Formula E season for Jaguar Racing. He has also raced for Team Ireland in A1 Grand Prix, winning the series in 2009.
Career history
Early career Carroll, who was born in Portadown, Northern Ireland, started his career in 1993 competing in karting events. He continued in karting until 1998. After winning the Elf LA FILIERE SCHOLARSHIP in 1999, he moved on to British Formula Ford, winning the Winter Series and taking third in the festival. He raced in the British Formula Ford competition in 2001, before successfully making the move to British Formula 3 B-Class in 2002 with the Sweeney team. Despite driving year-old cars, Carroll was always an outright front runner and he dominated the class winning the title with a record points tally.
International racing In 2003, Carroll moved up to Championship Class British Formula 3, but due to lack of finance, he had little stability and finished the year having driven with three different teams (eight podiums in a row with Menu), before competing in part of the Formula Three Euroseries season, where despite being new to both team, series, track and tyres, he finished in the points in his first race. He also partnered and outperformed future Formula One driver Nico Rosberg in an end of season event in South Korea. He continued in Formula Three throughout 2004, finishing as runner up to Nelson Piquet Jr. before joining the 2005 GP2 Series, replacing Hayanari Shimoda at the Super Nova Racing team just before the start of the season.
Although Carroll's pre-season preparation for GP2 left him at a disadvantage to all the other drivers due to the lateness of his race deal and consequent lack of testing with his new team, he was immediately competitive, briefly challenging for the championship before slipping back as the season progressed due to reliability setbacks and on-track incidents.
Despite continually having trouble raising a budget for his racing, Carroll still managed to outperform drivers who had funding readily available to them, including 2005 team-mate, and ex F1 driver, Giorgio Pantano. His undoubted talent caught the eye of Formula One and in 2005 he was signed as a test driver for Formula One team BAR-Honda. For the 2006 GP2 season, he surprised many in choosing to join the Racing Engineering team when his previous team had a better chance of picking up the title. It soon became clear that due to Carroll's continued lack of sponsorship, the Racing Engineering deal saved him from having to drop out of top line motorsport altogether. He has since removed himself from the Honda driver program sensing a lack of opportunity as Button and Barrichello would be hard to replace.
The only real high point of the 2006 season was a pole position, third place and second place combo at Silverstone. It was clear throughout the season, however, that Carroll's team was not as strong as the majority of the other teams in the series. This was highlighted many times due to car failures that cost him many points throughout the year. As well as this, the car was distinctly slower and he also had trouble with other drivers hitting him from behind. This coupled with a driver error while leading race two in Hungary cost Carroll a lot of points that, should he have gained them, he would have been in contention for at least third in the championship. As it was though, Carroll's 33 points was enough to give him eighth place (equal points with seventh-placed Gianmaria Bruni, with Bruni ahead having scored more wins). Carroll scored all of his team's points, outscoring his old team Super Nova Racing.
DTM, GP2 and A1GP
For the start of the 2007 season, Carroll was driving a two-year-old Audi A4 in the German DTM series for the Futurecom TME team. On 26 June, it was announced that he would replace Antônio Pizzonia in the FMS GP2 team for the event supporting the French Grand Prix. Carroll won at the Silverstone round of the GP2 series and scored four other points to take a total of thirteen in one weekend, only his second back in GP2, in a car that had only scored one point beforehand. It was announced on 13 July that he had left the DTM due to sponsorship problems, and concentrated on GP2 for the rest of 2007. Carroll also went on to claim victory in the first race at the Hungaroring, despite starting sixth and changing all four tires during his mandatory pit stop. The season did not end so well for Carroll, as he scored only two points in the last three races despite being in contention for much more. However, he did finish in seventh place, ahead of many drivers who, unlike Carroll, had completed the entire season.:::Race Control::: During this time, Carroll had tested the A1GP car for Ireland, which led to him being signed to race in A1GP. In his first start, he scored Ireland's biggest points haul in the history of A1GP by scored a podium in his first race and despite starting eighteenth on the grid due to being blocked in qualifying, sixth in the feature race. Later in the season, he won the Mexico City feature race, Ireland's first win in A1GP. He also finished on the podium at Brands Hatch, en route to helping Team Ireland finish sixth overall in the championship.
Carroll began the 2008 GP2 Series season without a drive, but when Adrián Vallés was dropped by FMS International after the first round of the season, he took part in four races for his old team. He was then replaced by Marko Asmer.
For 2008/2009, Carroll returned to A1GP and Team Ireland again leading them to victory for the first time, in China. A1 Team Ireland became the fourth A1 Grand Prix champions, after a title battle which went down to the final round in Great Britain. Ireland won with 112 points, all scored by Carroll and included five race victories and three fastest laps.
Carroll announced in April 2009 that he was approached by two F1 teams in negotiation for a driver's seat for 2010.Carroll eyes Formula One chance BBC Sport, 23 April 2009. Retrieved on 23 April 2009 It turned out that the two teams were Campos Meta and Manor GP, both of which were new entries for the 2010 season. Carroll said that he could not raise the 4 million Euros needed to sign for Virgin.Doing it the hard way – Sky Sports He was also in line for a drive with Lola, which was also planning to enter the sport in 2010, but the British marque's entry was turned down.
IndyCar IndyCar Series team Andretti Autosport announced that Carroll was to take part in some races during the second half of the 2010 season.Andretti Autosport signs Adam carroll to limited 2010 Izod IndyCar Series schedule – Andretti Autosport, 29 April 2010 He ultimately competed in the Watkins Glen Grand Prix and the Honda Indy 200, finishing in sixteenth and nineteenth places respectively. He scored 26 points in total and finished the season 34th in the drivers' championship.
2011
On 2 July, Carroll made a one-off appearance in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series at the sixth round of the championship where he finished fourth and third in the two races. This was in place of the injured Austrian driver, Walter Grubmüller. He also drove in the Donington round of the Auto GP series taking pole and finishing fifth and second in the races. He then returned to GP2 with Super Nova Racing for the German round onwards, replacing Luca Filippi.
Formula E Carroll frequented the series during the 2015–16 season as a potential substitute driver for Mahindra and Team Aguri, neither of which came to fruition. On 19 August 2016, Carroll was listed as one of four drivers partaking with Jaguar Racing in the 2016–17 Formula E pre-season test at Donington Park, having tested with the team previously. Carroll was subsequently signed with the team.
In the 2020–21 Formula E season, Carroll was signed as NIO 333's reserve driver.
Sports car racing In 2023, Carroll joined Team WRT in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, driving alongside Lewis Proctor and Tim Whale in the team's No. 31 entry. He also added a part-time campaign in the GT World Challenge America with Esses Racing.
Racing record Complete British Formula Three Championship results (key) Year Entrant Chassis Engine Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 DC Points 2002 Sweeney Racing Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda BRH1 BRH2 DON1 DON2 SIL1 SIL2 KNO1 KNO2 CRO1 CRO2 SIL1 SIL2 CAS1 CAS2 BRH1 BRH2 ROC1 ROC2 OUL1 OUL2 SNE1 SNE2 SNE3 THR1 THR2 DON1 DON2 1st 367 2003 Lola Cars Lola-Dome F106-03 Mugen-Honda DON1 DON2 SNE1 SNE2CRO1CRO2KNO1KNO2 10th 90 Menu F3 Motorsport Dallara F303 Opel Spiess SIL1 SIL2 CAS1 CAS2 OUL1 OUL2 ROC1 ROC2 THR1 THR2 SPA1 SPA2DON1DON2BRH1BRH2 2004 P1 Motorsport Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda DON1 DON2 SIL1 SIL2 CRO1 CRO2 KNO1 KNO2 SNE1 SNE2 SNE3 CAS1 CAS2 DON1 DON2 OUL1 OUL2 SIL1 SIL2 THR1 THR2 SPA1 SPA2 BRH1 BRH2 2nd 233
Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results (key) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 DC Points 2003 Opel Team KMS Dallara F302/009 Spiess-Opel HOC1 HOC2 ADR1 ADR2 PAU1 PAU2 NOR1 NOR2 LMS1 LMS2 NÜR1 NÜR2 A1R1 A1R2 ZAN1 ZAN2 HOC1 HOC2 MAG1 MAG2 17th 7
Complete GP2 Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 DC Points 2005 Super Nova International IMOFEA IMOSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA NÜRFEA NÜRSPR MAGFEA MAGSPR SILFEA SILSPR HOCFEA HOCSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR MNZFEA MNZSPR SPAFEA SPASPR BHRFEA BHRSPR 5th 53 2006 Racing Engineering VALFEA VALSPR IMOFEA IMOSPR NÜRFEA NÜRSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA SILFEA SILSPR MAGFEA MAGSPR HOCFEA HOCSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR MNZFEA MNZSPR 8th 33 2007 Petrol Ofisi FMS International BHRFEA BHRSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MAGFEA MAGSPR SILFEA SILSPR NÜRFEA NÜRSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR MNZFEA MNZSPR SPAFEA SPASPR VALFEA VALSPR 7th 36 2008 Fisichella Motor Sport International CATFEA CATSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR MONFEA MONSPR MAGFEA MAGSPR SILFEA SILSPR HOCFEA HOCSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR VALFEA VALSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR 25th 1 2011 Super Nova Racing ISTFEA ISTSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MONSPR VALFEA VALSPR SILFEA SILSPR NÜRFEA NÜRSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR 17th 6
Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pos Points 2007 Futurecom TME Audi A4 DTM 2005 HOC OSC LAU BRH NOR17† MUG ZAN NÜR CAT HOC 18th 0 † Driver did not finish, but was classified as he completed 90% of the winner's race distance.
Complete A1 Grand Prix results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 DC Points 2007–08 Ireland NEDSPR NEDFEA CZESPR CZEFEA MYSSPR MYSFEA ZHUSPR ZHUFEA NZLSPR NZLFEA AUSSPR AUSFEA RSASPR RSAFEA MEXSPR MEXFEA SHASPR SHAFEA GBRSPR GBRFEA 6th 94 2008–09 NLDSPR NLDFEA CHNSPR CHNFEA MYSSPR MYSFEA NZLSPR NZLFEA RSASPR RSAFEA PORSPR PORFEA GBRSPR GBRFEA 1st 112
American open–wheel results (key)
IndyCar Year Team No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Rank Points Ref 2010 Andretti Autosport 27 SAO STP ALA LBH KAN INDY TXS IOWWGL TOR EDMMDO SNM CHI KTY MOT HMS34th26
Years Teams Races Poles Wins Podiums(Non-win) Top 10s(Non-podium) Indianapolis 500Wins Championships112000000
Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Pos Points 2011 P1 MotorsportALC1ALC2SPA1SPA2MNZ1MNZ2MONNÜR1NÜR2 HUN1 HUN2SIL1SIL2LEC1LEC2CAT1CAT2 17th 27
Complete Auto GP results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)