Adam Norman Carroll (born 26 October 1982) is a British professional racing driver. He last raced in the
2016–17 Formula E season for
Jaguar Racing
Jaguar Racing is the name given to Jaguar Land Rover's racing interests. The Jaguar brand currently competes in Formula E under the name Jaguar TCS Racing for sponsorship reasons. It is the defending Formula E World Teams' Champion, having wo ...
. He has also raced for
Team Ireland in
A1 Grand Prix
A1 Grand Prix Operations Ltd. operated as A1 Grand Prix (A1GP) was a "single-make" open-wheel auto racing series that ran from 2005 until 2009. It was unique in its field in that competitors solely represented their nation as opposed to themse ...
, winning the series in
2009
2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
.
Career history
Early career
Carroll, who was born in
Portadown
Portadown ( ) is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town is based on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population ...
,
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
, started his career in 1993 competing in
karting
Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on full-size motor ...
events. He continued in karting until 1998. After winning the Elf LA FILIERE SCHOLARSHIP in 1999 he moved on to
British Formula Ford
The British Formula Ford Championship was an entry-level single seater motor racing category, designed to give racing drivers their first step into car racing after karting. Drivers from around the world were attracted to the United Kingdom to co ...
, winning the Winter Series and taking 3rd in the festival. He raced in the
British Formula Ford
The British Formula Ford Championship was an entry-level single seater motor racing category, designed to give racing drivers their first step into car racing after karting. Drivers from around the world were attracted to the United Kingdom to co ...
competition in 2001, before successfully making the move to
British Formula 3
The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single sea ...
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
The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single sea ...
, but due to lack of finance, he had little stability and finished the year having driven with three different teams (8 podiums in a row with Menu), before competing in part of the
Formula Three Euroseries
The Formula 3 Euro Series was a European-based junior single seater formula for Formula Three chassis that was launched (in its current form) in 2003 as a merger of the French Formula Three Championship and German Formula Three Championship. The ...
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
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...
driver
Nico Rosberg
Nico Erik Rosberg (born 27 June 1985) is a German and Finnish former racing driver and entrepreneur, who competed under the German flag in Formula One from to . Rosberg won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Mercedes, and w ...
in an end of season event in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
. He continued in Formula Three throughout 2004, finishing as runner up to
Nelson Piquet Jr. before joining the
2005 GP2 Series
The 2005 GP2 Series season was the thirty-ninth season of the second-tier of Formula One feeder championship and also first season under the GP2 Series moniker. The season started in Imola, Italy on 23 April, and ended in Sakhir, Bahrain on 30 Se ...
, replacing
Hayanari Shimoda
Hayanari Shimoda (下田隼成; Shimoda Hayanari; born July 16, 1984) is a Japanese racing driver.
Biography
His career started in 1997 in karting, Shimoda moving up to Italian Formula Renault in 2001. Happy to travel the world to further his c ...
at the
Super Nova Racing
Super Nova Racing was a British racing team that has competed in International Formula 3000, Formula 3000/GP2 Series, GP2 and the A1 Grand Prix series.
History
Super Nova first entered racing in 1991. Super Nova was a new incarnation of the p ...
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, he has still managed to outperform drivers who have had funding readily available to them, including 2005 team-mate, and ex F1 driver,
Giorgio Pantano
Giorgio Pantano (born 4 February 1979) is an Italian former professional racing driver who drove for the Jordan Grand Prix, Jordan Formula One team for much of the 2004 Formula One season, 2004 season before being replaced by Timo Glock. He also ...
. His undoubted talent caught the eye of
Formula One
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...
and in 2005 he was signed as a test driver for Formula One team
BAR-Honda
British American Racing (BAR) was a Formula One constructor that competed in the sport from 1999 to 2005. BAR began by acquiring Tyrrell Racing, Tyrrell, and used Supertec engines for their first year. Subsequently, they formed a partnership wit ...
. For the 2006 GP2 season he surprised many in choosing to join the
Racing Engineering
Racing Engineering is a Spanish racing team founded in 1999 by Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón that currently competes in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. The team's headquarters are located in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, near Jerez, where all car prep ...
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
A button is a fastener that joins two pieces of fabric together by slipping through a loop or by sliding through a buttonhole.
In modern clothing and fashion design, buttons are commonly made of plastic but also may be made of metal, wood, or ...
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
Gianmaria "Gimmi" Bruni (born 30 May 1981) is an Italian Porsche factory auto racing driver who drove in the 2004 Formula One World Championship for Minardi. He is a GP2 Series race winner and is now racing in the FIA World Endurance Championsh ...
with Bruni ahead having scored more wins). Carroll scored all of his team's points, outscoring his old team
Super Nova Racing
Super Nova Racing was a British racing team that has competed in International Formula 3000, Formula 3000/GP2 Series, GP2 and the A1 Grand Prix series.
History
Super Nova first entered racing in 1991. Super Nova was a new incarnation of the p ...
.
DTM, GP2 and A1GP
For the start of the 2007 season, Carroll was driving a two-year-old
Audi A4
The Audi A4 is a line of luxury compact executive cars produced from 1994 to 2025 by the German car manufacturer Audi, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. The A4 has been built in five generations and is based on the Volkswagen Group B platfor ...
in the German
DTM
DTM may refer to:
Sport
* Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, a motor-racing series staged annually in Germany since 2000
* Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, a motor-racing championship staged in Germany from 1984 to 1995
Computing
* Data Transfer ...
series for the
Futurecom TME
ByKolles Racing, formerly known as Kodewa, is an Austrian-German auto racing team based in Greding, Germany. The team most recently fielded the No. 4 Vanwall Vandervell 680 in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2023. It was founded in 2000 b ...
team. On 26 June it was announced that he would replace
Antônio Pizzonia
Antônio Reginaldo Pizzonia Júnior (born 11 September 1980) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who has raced in Formula One and the Champ Car World Series. Born in Manaus, he started his car racing career in the Formula Vauxhall Junior ...
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 4 other points to take a total of 13 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
The Hungaroring is a motorsport racetrack in Mogyoród, Pest County, Hungary where the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix is held. In 1986, it became the location of the first Formula One Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix behind the Iron Curtai ...
, 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 2 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. During this time, Adam had tested the A1GP car for Ireland, impressing everyone at Silverstone and so for the second event onwards, Adam signed up to race in A1GP. His first weekend demonstrated yet again what a talent he was as he got Ireland's biggest points haul in the history of A1GP by netting a podium in his first race and despite starting 18th on the grid due to being blocked in qualifying, 6th 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
Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently hosts ...
, en route to helping Team Ireland finish 6th overall in the championship.
Carroll began the
2008 GP2 Series season
The 2008 GP2 Series season was the forty-second season of the second-tier of Formula One feeder championship and also fourth season under the GP2 Series moniker. It began on 26 April at Montmeló, Spain and it finished on 14 September at Monza, ...
without a drive, but when
Adrián Vallés
Adrián Vallés Escortell (born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish race car driver.
Career
Vallés was born in Teulada, Alicante. After a strong karting career, he drove in Spanish Formula Three, before moving to the World Series by Nissan in 2004. T ...
was dropped by
FMS International
Fisichella Motor Sport is a motorsport team, founded by Italian Formula One driver Giancarlo Fisichella and his manager Enrico Zanarini.
Racing history Euroseries 3000
Fisichella Motor Sport had a team, run by Scuderia Coloni, racing in the ...
after the first round of the season, he took part in four races for his old team.
He was then replaced by
Marko Asmer
Marko Asmer (born 30 July 1984) is an Estonian former racing driver, who won the British Formula 3 Championship title in 2007. Asmer is also the first Estonian to test a Formula One car, having tested for the Williams BMW team in 2003, after ...
.
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. It turned out that the two teams were
Campos Meta and
Manor GP
Virgin Racing (subsequently Marussia Virgin Racing) was a Formula One racing team which was under management of Manor Motorsport, Wirth Research and Richard Branson's Virgin Group and competed in with a British licence and in with a Russian ...
, 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. He was also in line for a drive with
Lola
Lola may refer to:
Places
* Lolá, a or subdistrict of Panama
* Lola Township, Cherokee County, Kansas, United States
* Lola Prefecture, Guinea
* Lola, Guinea, a town in Lola Prefecture
* Lola Island, in the Solomon Islands
People
* Lol ...
, which was also planning to enter the sport in 2010, but the British marque's entry was turned down.
IndyCar
IndyCar Series
The IndyCar Series, officially known as the NTT IndyCar Series for sponsorship reasons, is the highest class of American open-wheel car racing in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of various sanctioning bodies sinc ...
team
Andretti Autosport
Andretti Global is an American motorsports organization with teams competing in the IndyCar Series, Indy NXT, Formula E, and joint entries in IMSA and the Australian Supercars Championship. Starting in 2026, Andretti will also operate the Cad ...
announced that Carroll was to take part in some races during the second half of the
2010 season. He ultimately competed in the
Watkins Glen Grand Prix
The Six Hours of Watkins Glen (currently sponsored as the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen) is a sports car endurance race held annually at Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York. The race dates from 1948, and has been a part of the ...
and the
Honda Indy 200
The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio is an IndyCar Series race held at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. Professional open wheel races at the facility date back to 1970. The U.S. Formula 5000 series ran from 1970 to 1976, and the revived ...
, finishing in 16th and 19th 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
The World Series Formula V8 3.5, formerly the World Series by Nissan from 1998 to 2004, the Formula Renault 3.5 Series from 2005 to 2015 and the Formula V8 3.5 in 2016 and 2017, was a motor racing series promoted by RPM Racing (1998–2004) and R ...
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
Walter Grubmüller (born 13 January 1989 in Vienna) is an Austrian racing driver.
Career
Karting
Beginning his karting career in his native Austria in 2000, Grubmüller did not move up into the major international series until 2002, with an ap ...
. He also drove in the Donington round of the Auto GP series taking pole and finishing 5th and 2nd in the races. He then returned to
GP2 with
Super Nova Racing
Super Nova Racing was a British racing team that has competed in International Formula 3000, Formula 3000/GP2 Series, GP2 and the A1 Grand Prix series.
History
Super Nova first entered racing in 1991. Super Nova was a new incarnation of the p ...
for the German round onwards, replacing
Luca Filippi
Luca Filippi (born 9 August 1985 in Savigliano, Italy) is an Italian former auto racing driver. He competed in GP2 Series from 2006 to 2012, and the IndyCar Series from 2013 to 2016. In 2008 he was the official Honda Racing F1 test driver.
Career ...
.
Formula E
Carroll frequented the series during the
2015–16 season as a potential substitute driver for
Mahindra and
Team Aguri
Team Aguri, formerly Amlin Aguri and officially the Team Aguri Formula E Team, was an international motor racing team founded by former Formula One and 24 Hours of Le Mans driver Aguri Suzuki (Executive Chairman) and Mark Preston (businessman), Ma ...
, neither of which came to fruition. On 19 August 2016, Carroll was listed as one of four drivers partaking with
Jaguar Racing
Jaguar Racing is the name given to Jaguar Land Rover's racing interests. The Jaguar brand currently competes in Formula E under the name Jaguar TCS Racing for sponsorship reasons. It is the defending Formula E World Teams' Champion, having wo ...
in the
2016–17 Formula E pre-season test at
Donington Park
Donington Park is a motorsport Race track, circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, sti ...
, having tested with the team previously. Carroll was subsequently signed with the team.
In the
2020–21 Formula E season
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...
, Carroll was signed as
NIO 333's reserve driver.
Sports car racing
In 2023, Carroll joined
Team WRT
W Racing Team (known as Team WRT) is a Belgium, Belgian auto racing team founded in 2009 by engineer and former head of Volkswagen Motorsport René Verbist, racing driver Vincent Vosse, and entrepreneur Yves Weerts. Between 2010 and 2022 the team ...
in the
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup
The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, formerly for sponsorship reasons the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015 and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from 2016 to 2019, is a sports car racing series developed by Stéphane Ratel Or ...
, driving alongside Lewis Proctor and Tim Whale in the team's #31 entry. He also added a part-time campaign in the
GT World Challenge America
The GT World Challenge America is a North American auto racing series launched in 1990 by the Sports Car Club of America. It has been managed by the SRO Motorsports Group since 2018, and has been sanctioned by the United States Auto Club since 20 ...
with Esses Racing.
Racing record
Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results
(
key)
Complete GP2 Series results
(
key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results
(
key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
† 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)
American open–wheel results
(
key)
IndyCar
Complete Auto GP results
(
key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
Complete European Le Mans Series results
Complete British GT Championship results
(
key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results
24 Hours of Le Mans results
Complete Formula E results
Ferrari Challenge Finali Mondiali results
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, Adam
1982 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Portadown
Racing drivers from Northern Ireland
Formula Palmer Audi drivers
Formula Ford drivers
British Formula Three Championship drivers
Formula 3 Euro Series drivers
GP2 Series drivers
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters drivers
A1 Team Ireland drivers
IndyCar Series drivers
People educated at Killicomaine Junior High School
World Series Formula V8 3.5 drivers
Auto GP drivers
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup drivers
European Le Mans Series drivers
24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
24 Hours of Spa drivers
British GT Championship drivers
Formula E drivers
International GT Open drivers
Jaguar Racing drivers
Racing Engineering drivers
Super Nova Racing drivers
Kolles Racing drivers
Andretti Autosport drivers
Campos Racing drivers
Techeetah drivers
Status Grand Prix drivers
A1 Grand Prix drivers
Audi Sport drivers
Alan Docking Racing drivers
P1 Motorsport drivers
AFS Racing drivers
Scuderia Coloni drivers
W Racing Team drivers
GT4 European Series drivers
Ferrari Challenge drivers
GT World Challenge America drivers
Motorsport people from County Down
BMW M drivers