F1 Fanatic

Adrian Sutil has been charged with greivous bodily harm after the incident with Eric Lux at the M1NT club in Shanghai. If convicted, he faces up to one year in prison and a possible ban from entering China. Speculation suggests that this is a major deterrant to Williams signing him for the 2012 season.

He has only been charged, not convicted. Innocent until proven guilty and all that.

But even if Sutil escapes with a suspended sentence – most likely, I’d wager – and even if a team or two out there want his services, he faces a bigger threat: the suspension of his superlicence. When Lewis Hamilton was caught doing burnouts in Melbourne, Jean Todt brought new legistation to bear stating that any driver who brought the sport into disrepute faced the immdiate suspension of his superlicence. It was mostly intended for racing drivers breaking the rules of the road (particularly after the FIA had been pushing on the Make Roads Safe campaign that Todt was running before he became President), but if you can lose your licence for hooning, then you should certainly be able to lose if for GBH.

This happened a long time ago, strange that it only comes up now.

Actually, it’s not that strange. Sutil would not have been formally charged and summoned to court until the prosecutor built a case. And that prosecutor has probably had dozens of other cases that needed to be resolved before he or she could turn their attentions to Sutil.

As a fan of Mr Sutil I’d hate to see him get locked up for a small bar brawl,

I don’t know what went on or what happened but anyone especially an F1 driver should know better (if the worst is true). I don’t think a bar brawl is ever just a small incident either.

I hope it gets sorted out soon though- one way or the other. The more uncertainty there is the more difficult it will be for a team to sign him and if they do gamble and he’s not allowed into China that’ll just be ridiculous for the sport.

Sutil’s always been an odd one for me. I loved his fake glasses joke on the gridwalk this year – I can’t remember which race it was before – and how he handled Trulli in the 09′ Abu Dhabi press conference, but this whole incident doesn’t really fit in with that persona he projects. As @Girts says, he can be a little enigmatic. The only thing I can say I definitively know about his personal life is that he’s great friends with Lewis Hamilton.

Apart from that, there’s just baseless speculation (edit: I should say, not on my part – I just mean that’s the only other stuff I’ve read about his personal life. I’m not really fussed either way!) on his sexuality – which, unfortunately, doesn’t help the rumours that Lux made a joke at Sutil’s expense and that a girl was also allegedly involved in the Shanghai incident.

All in all, I’m just left feeling not sure who I’m meant to feel sorry for!

@jarred-walmsley – I think a lot of that decision will come down to the outcome of the trial. If Sutil were to be found not guilty, or if he were acquitted of the charges, then I think the FIA would be hard-pressed to justify suspending his licence because the court would have ruled it an accident. I think that the FIA would only really suspend his licence in the event the court decided it was pre-meditated, though Sutil would likely face a jail sentence (rather than a suspended one). As @Girts and @the-hundredth-idiot have pointed out, Sutil seems to be very self-consicious of his image, and that he has had to endure a lot of speculation that he is gay (most of this seems to stem from the way he’s never really had a high-profile girlfriend). I’m not sure how much the court would take it into account, but since it was a nightclub, that implies there was alcohol involved, and if Eric Lux insulted or humiliated him and Sutil simply lashed out in the heat of the moment, then I think the FIA would be hard-pressed to suspend his licence, particularly if the courts recognised as much.

All I hope for is a correct verdict. If he did it, he deserves to be punished. If not, then it’s unfortunate, but his career may be ruined if he can’t find a seat this year.

@Prisoner Monkeys

Doesn’t Albert Park cease to be public roads so long as the Australian Grand Prix is going on? Also, according to that logic, all the drivers should be charged with speeding surely?