Sutil apologises following Shanghai club incident

2011 F1 season

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Adrian Sutil, Force India, Shanghai, 2011

Adrian Sutil has issued a statement following reports he was involved in a fight in a Shanghai bar.

Sutil said: “In response to the rumours that have appeared in the media regarding an incident in a Shanghai club, I wish to make the following statement:

“After the Grand Prix in Shanghai I attended a party on the Sunday evening away from the track where I unintentionally injured another guest. I have unreservedly apologised for this.

“As this is a private matter, which has nothing to do with Formula 1, I will make no further public comments on this subject.”

Eric Lux, the chief executive of Genii Capital which owns the Renault F1 team, is reported to be the person who was injured.

2011 F1 season


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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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69 comments on “Sutil apologises following Shanghai club incident”

  1. Keith,

    It should be fighting not fightin.

    1. actually it should be ‘fight in’ aha

      1. actually it should be ‘fight in’ aha

        LOL

    2. Corrected – thanks.

  2. A sad incident. Good to see they are able to solve it more or less in private.

    1. Le Figaro says that Lux is going to press charges, so this story isn’t over yet.

      1. Seems the guy is a tit (Mr. Lux). I tried to read that figaro article (In French and translated to several languages to get a clearer picture) and I get the strong impression that that article is some press statement by Lux and his lawyers as it really reads like a one sided account of matters from him.

        “cut his throath” – that would be attempted manslaughter. To do that in a whim with a broken glass …
        I guess Lux did behave more than just a bit arrogant and was not all mr. niceguy to say the least.

        1. I tried to read that figaro article (In French and translated to several languages to get a clearer picture)

          Just I ask me next time dude, I’m fluent in French.

          1. Good, so what do you make of that article Sush?

            I cannot suppress the notion that a very arrogant Mr. Lux told these 2 punks (Adrian and Lewis) to bugger off from “his” VIP part and got a pretty unappropriate answer back.

            And instead of leaving it at that, it somehow escalated into a broken glass in Adrians hand and a cut on Lux’s neck. Sutil feels embarresed (he should), Lux feels insulted and hurt (maybe understandedly, but does he need the fuss) and Lewis tries to help his friend, not doing any good in the process.

            So do we now have our first real scandal this year?

        2. @BasCB It all depends on what really happened.

          If Sutil attacked the guy with a broken bottle or even a broken glass, then it’s pretty serious. I once was near a fight involving broken bottles and it ended up pretty badly, with blood all over the place and several people in a hospital (not because I was there, but because people used glass as a weapon).

          If it was an accident, it’s a different story. It’s hard for me to imagine how it could be an accident, but it’s possible.

          Still, I don’t blame Eric Lux for suing, especially if he really ended up with several stitches and possibly some permanent scars.

          1. Personally I think that a rich person being a team owner through his investments setting out ot sue a driver for such an incident is not the right thing to do.

            I understand why none of the people involved wanted to go to the chinese police. Who would. But still I figure this should be settled behind closed doors between them. Whats to gain by pressing charges, satisfaction?

      2. Charges have now been filed officially.

        1. Going on to say that Sutil should be immediately suspended. Injuring someone with a glass is a serious assault. Striking someone in the neck with a broken glass is tantamount to an attempt to kill. You do not strike someone in the neck with the broken stem of a champagne glass ‘accidentally’. It has absolutely nothing to do with how much money anyone has..

        2. Sorry, can you provide us with some evidence for that statement? I can’t find anything reported (at least not in any English-language publications) to correlate this.

          What country are the official charges filed in?

    2. I think Adrian is underestimating his actions and trying to calm things down because he’s afraid of Lux’s reaction.

      1. It’s all speculation about how it happened and there are so many questions. How serious was the injury exactly? When and how did Lux travel to hospital? How did the argument start? Were they drunk? How does a glass end up broken? Whyw eren’t the police involved – because they wanted to keep it quiet, it was an accident or because Luz actually provoked it?

        I don’t really want to say anything bad about either character (although if it was intentional then Sutil doesn’t seem like a very pleasant man if not then a bit of an unfortunate pratt for getting caught up in it) but this must be really hurting Adrian. The whispers will run on and on and at the end of a day the story that sticks will be him injuring another party in a nightclub and that could seriously damage his reputation.

        1. I agree, I’m sure the story is losing nothing in the telling. Let’s wait until we hear something official. It’s hard to know what to believe at the moment. For example, two major UK newspapers might be sued for implying a man killed someone when he was later cleared of any involvement. This is serious stuff. Kudos to Keith for not going beyond the statements made.

  3. He issused a statement to the German press – the situation is elaborated on a bit more. Its on the bild.de website if anyone fancies having a look, or the link to my tumblr is there – I put it up a few days ago

  4. SennaNmbr1 (@)
    12th May 2011, 18:57

    Renault drive out of the question then.

    1. Subaru_600BHP
      15th May 2011, 19:19

      Renault was out of the question for him anyway, if Di Resta out performs him this season, Virgin OR Hispania is all he will be worthy for! with Hulkenburg jumping into his seat.

  5. Can anyone remember Monza 09, Sutil came home in 4th (I think that was it anyway). Sutil was giving a post race interview to Jake on the BBC when some attractive lady presented him with some flowers or champagne… Jake asked “do you know here” and Sutil replied “not yet”…

    Best, reply, ever! :D

    1. I remember that. Legendary answer!

  6. Sutil you ANIMAL

    1. Ya, what’s Hamilton doing with bodyguards when he has Sutil by his side!!

    2. Its surprising that Sutil assaulted someone. After his spat with Trulli in 2009, he seemed to come off a really calm mature person. He must have been ****** drunk and seriously provoked to have nearly slit a guy’s throat.

    1. Just read that… for non-French speakers:

      Here are the facts: the evening of the exciting Chinese GP, Eric Lux some invited guests were relaxing at M1nt, one of the most famous clubs in Shanghai, when Adrian Sutil entered with Lewis Hamilton and his bodyguards. The VIP area was (already) full, but Lux offered some space to the Sutil-Hamilton group, who, it appears, became increasingly disagreeable. The behaviour of Sutil became “unsuitable”, and at when (Lux) asked the driver (Sutil) to calm down he was attacked: Sutil took hold of a champagne glass and (cut/slashed/slit) his (Lux’s) throat, from the ear to the carotid. Lux started bleeding, Hamilton was immediately “extracted” from M1nt by his bodyguards. And although Sutil hurriedly left China by the first flight, Lux was hospitalised and required over 20 stitches.

      The points of doubt is undoubtedly: was it “cut, slashed or slit”? The French word “entaillé” isn’t clear in this case.

      1. It seems like that is wrote from someone associated with Lux. Would like to hear the other side of story because even it was an incredibly stupid thing for Sutil to do I can’t imagine it was done unless severely provoked. If it is as bad as it sounds Sutil is in quite a bit of trouble.

        1. “entaillé” is not good. it means it can be quite deep, when a cut is just superficial.

          no matter what Lux said, it is no excuse for sutil. unless it was an accident and we don’t know the full story, we are not animals and beating or hurting someone for that sort of reason is just stupidity.

  7. Seems very hush hush… Sounds bit like my fist unintentionally collided with Eric Lux’s face thus injuring him cause im Adrian & I hit hard, now sod off cause its none of you’re business.

  8. Booo. This is boring. I wanted a good punch up.

    1. There is CCTV of this incident, so it should be fairly easy to clear up what happens, and I’m sure Lux’s lawyers are looking into it.

      Apparently Hamilton has also given evidence that contradicts this video surveillance. It’s a pity for him, as it’s understandable that he was just trying to protect a friend.

      1. I would have thought that Hamilton would have learned his lesson about giving evidence which contradicts video evidence…

        1. COTD.

        2. OUCH!

      2. Source?

  9. What? Hamilton lying to the stewards? Never! ;)

  10. I know this is a bit tasteless, but what if any effect might this have on his seat? Seems as though if this had happened to Liuzzi about six months ago, VJM would have found it a godsend.

    1. He may still find it a godsend if it provides him with an easy road to a DiResta/Hülkenberg pairing…

  11. Give the guy a break, everybody gets angry now and then, it was in a private situation, so why does it deserve this much attention?

    1. to be fair, not everyone gets angry and cuts another person’s throat!!

    2. Huge difference between just getting angry and glassing someone.

    3. Gaston (@golarrazabal)
      13th May 2011, 5:40

      I agree with you. I mean, big deal. We have this sort of incidents in every other major sport. Footballers go out with their teammate’s girlfriend, MLB pitchers punch their fathers-in-law… whatever.

      Sure, it’s not pretty, but it’s his own business if he got angry or drunk or whatever and hit someone else. If he has to face any legal consequences, then so be it.

      All in all, I find it kind of funny, as I considered Sutil to be cultured and stuff. Being a pianist, speaking a thousand languages, that stuff.

      1. All in all, I find it kind of funny, as I considered Sutil to be cultured and stuff.

        Au contraire – this is just more evidence of Sutil’s Rennaisance man status; clearly he’s well-versed in hand-to-hand combat.

    4. The accusation of glassing is very serious, Lux could have died.

  12. fightin round the world

  13. Wobblebottom
    13th May 2011, 2:50

    I must say, I never knew Sutil had it in him!! Not condoning glassing someone….unless they deserve it but I always thought of Sutil as the consummate wet blanket with no vim!! I like him more now!! :-)

    1. Yeah, seems there are more people thinking this was a good career move to look more agressive.

      http://www.formula1blog.com/2011/05/12/getting-in-a-bar-brawl-is-the-best-move-of-sutils-career/

      1. At the very least, if he ends up getting canned, he’ll be able to get a seat in NASCAR…

        1. LOL, will be quite a character. Piano playing bersersker Adrian

  14. Make Club Safe

  15. Pretty amusing really. Never thought Sutil would get into a cat fight. Probably puts a move to Renault on hold..

  16. I’m sorry, but the BS-meter is going off for me, reading the translated version of the Lux comments, from the French paper. Firstly – French reporting about someone from a ‘French’ team, I don’t expect it to be unbiased, but it certainly reads like a PR/lawyer statement from the Lux side.

    Secondly – Lux shows up at Turkey with a big bandage on. What on earth for? Head and neck wounds heal relatively quickly, stitches are generally removed between 5-10 days depending on location, so why have a bandage on 3 weeks later unless you are after publicity/sympathy/$$$?
    Furthermore, various reports go on to talk about 16-24 stitches – with that many stitches, I expect a 8-12 cm wound and I struggle to see how on earth one could inflict that with a champagne glass. The glassings I have seen are generally with beer glasses with a much bigger circumference and even then it’s often not that size wound.

    Finally, I think some of the comments in the French article are purely hysteria – ‘it luckily missed his aorta’ etc. Unless aorta means something else in French, there is no way any neck wound would be within 5-10cm of the aorta, given its within the chest cavity. And if Adrian can hit a major thoracic vessel with a champagne glass, I would be happy to hire him to work in my hospital – he’d be awesome at vascular surgery with a scalpel and some training!

    Sorry, but I can’t help but think that there is a lot more than meets the eye. Sutil isn’t normally aggressive, so either there truly was an unintentional accident and Renault are trying to sully his reputation or throw off FI, or Lux and his cronies must have REALLY upset Sutil… Insulting Adrian? Insulting Lewis? I’d like to watch that CCTV footage, preferably with a lipreader!

    1. Thanks for that perspective on it – I also found the french article seem biased and one sided, and a bit over the top too. At the same time, the Bild thingy doesn’t say much at all. But at least doesn’t paint a bad picture of the injured guy. I hadn’t thought about that bandage too much, but did wonder a bit about it with there being at least 2.5 weeks between the incident and the start of the Turkey event.

      But I also feel that I don’t really like many of the people at the management side of the Renault GP team (nothing about their racing team though), so maybe that makes a bit biased against them.

      1. Yes, that’s true – I should probably also post the disclaimer that I am not enamoured of the Renault management (Genii and Lotus) – in fact one of my first thoughts was “Good on you, Adrian, you got Dany Bahar!” (Yes, I know this makes me a bad person but Bahar really ****s me!!)

        Additionally I quite like Sutil, having met him prior to his first ever race, and and therefore overall I am probably as unbiased as French news reporting ;-)

        But I can’t help but think that if the incident was true as presented by the French reports, why on earth did it take a MONTH to get out to the media and internet? Something’s not right here…

    2. Why would there be any bias from the French press about something that is totally non-French ? Genii is from Luxembourg, as well as the victim. Not sure there is anything French in the F1 team apart from Bouiller. Apologies if I got this wrong, happy to be corrected. Le Figaro is a very respectable newspaper, millions miles away from even the least populist UK news publications.

      1. Sorry Nick, one of the first articles I had read said that Lux was French, however now I can’t find any reference either way to confirm his nationality – although my google search means I now know there is a US sports car racer named Eric Lux ;-P
        My mistake, apologies.

        1. No worries mate, not a big deal.

  17. Ironically, “Sutil” in Latin languages means “subtle”.

  18. The new Bertrand Gachot ?

    1. And Sutil’s driving for the team that was formerly Jordan

      1. And there’s another young German waiting in the line…

        1. And managed by W. Weber

          1. Does W.Weber occasionnaly drive a taxi ?

  19. Any respect that I used to have for Sutil has evaporated following his clumsy use of that split infinitive!

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