Sutil: "Hamilton is a coward"

Wow, no BFF any more for Lewis and Adrian.

Sutil was hoping for a bit more support from his buddy at his disco slasher trial in Germany. You will remember Sutil attacked Renault exec. Eric Lux with a champagne glass in a Shanghai club after last year's GP. Hamilton was there at the time but refused to testify.

Sutil was found guilty, sentenced to a 200000 euro fine and a three year suspended jail sentence. Though hi will not have to surrender his FIA Superlicense, his Formula One career is history.

Sutil told BILD:

"Lewis is a coward, I do not want to be friends with someone like that. He is for me no man, even his father sent me a text message written and wished me luck for the process. Lewis came from nothing. He has changed his phone number. I could not reach him anymore. "

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Epic Fail: Adrian Sutil crashes a Gumpert Apollo at the Ring

Adrian "Machete" Sutil continues his legendary string of epic fails this year. After his tuned Panamera, his throat slashing broken bottle bar fight with a top Renault exec, now comes a crash at a Nurburgring track day!.

In the age of twitter there is no escape for Machete, Chris Harris was there and tweeted a pic of Lewis' BFF right after the crash. Even better, our ol friend Dale who runs the best 'ring site out there, Bridgetogantry.com, was right behind and sent the picture above. I would make sure to tune in to BTG later for all the juicy details that are sure to follow. Juicy details like: ...it happened on the first corner! Machete annus horribilis, I guess.



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Three things about Red Bull...

Three things I heard about Red Bull today, make of them what you will:

1. Vettel and Webber went out early in q3 and then sat in the garage, Confidence? Arrogance? No chance to get directed to scrutineering box?

2. There is a gentlemen's agreement between teams on spending, Red Bull is rumored to have already topped the cap after four races.

3. RB tester Neel Jani tweeted how his neck was sore after testing the RB7. Only straight line tests are allowed, his neck was sore, really? Tweet was quickly deleted.

And one more rumor, not about Red Bull this time but Sutil who might very well not be in the car next week in Monaco. Force India, who have been looking for an excuse to dump "Machete" Sutil for some time in favor of Hulkenberg, would use the China bar fight with Renault exec Eric Lux as a pretext.

(photo: Pirelli)

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Adrian Sutil is reportedly being sued (somewhere) for $10 M by Genii Capital and Renault boss Eric Lux, who ended up requiting twenty four stitches do his neck after a confrontation with the German in a VIP area of a Shanghai club after the Chinese GP.

Lux left the bar bleeding, Lewis Hamilton also in the VIP, left with his bodyguards and Sutil, legend goes, slipped out the back door and out the country to avoid arrest.... Clearly Lux must have made a comment about Adrian's Panamera.
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What's in an F1 driver's garage?

Probably whatever they get for free but in some cases they actually buy their own...usually with mixed results. This is one from Adrien Sutil's garage, a "much improved" looking Panamera!


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Flex and that silly chicane!

I thought the splitter was not supposed to be flexible... also interesting is how much the ride height changes at speed. I suppose it's because of the need for a soft setup to deal with that dumb, dumb chicane? Check it out after the jump...

Las Dhabi World!

Looks to me like what we have here in the Yas Marina circuit is a combination Paul Ricard and Speed Racer 2008, something that looks beautiful on TV but has no substance and will probably give you a headache after 10 minutes.

Mostly long straights followed by hairpins or left right quasi-chicanes, it's yet one more Formula 1 track built as an amusement park without any natural features (this more than any other has NO natural features as it's built on a landfill) and where it's hard to imagine any consequences paid for mistakes made.

Apparently there are fantastic accommodations for the teams and their guests, for the press and, with the lights on, it will make TV directors happy but ... It feels like what it set out to be: an amusement park...complete with FerrariWorld ride. A middle eastern Las Vegas/Disney World, Bah. We'll see this week end if, at least, the circuit allows for good racing.

Free practice saw the Mclarens in front but as usual the first 13 cars are within one second of each other. Note Kobayashi in 5th!!
That might explain why Trulli's silly behaviour at the Thursday press conference which was best commented by Fernando Alonso with a "we will discuss tomorrow...deep". check it out after the jump.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps
 1.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:41.307            35
 2.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:41.504  + 0.197   34
 3.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:41.541  + 0.234   39
 4.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:41.591  + 0.284   37
 5.  Kobayashi    Toyota                (B)  1:41.636  + 0.329   34
 6.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:41.683  + 0.376   37
 7.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:41.684  + 0.377   34
 8.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:41.831  + 0.524   38
 9.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:41.931  + 0.624   39
10.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:41.987  + 0.680   39
11.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:42.180  + 0.873   28
12.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:42.245  + 0.938   36
13.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:42.278  + 0.971   36
14.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:42.409  + 1.102   30
15.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:42.530  + 1.223   33
16.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:42.782  + 1.475   29
17.  Fisichella   Ferrari               (B)  1:42.932  + 1.625   37
18.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:43.021  + 1.714   37
19.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:43.022  + 1.715   39
20.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:43.708  + 2.401   13

All Timing Unofficial

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Can we give Force India bonus points?

...what race fan does not feel terrible for Adrian Sutil? In a race that showed how being good is not as good as being lucky and good, the sight of the Force India car stopped in the pits after getting punted by Raikkonen was just devastating.

Hamilton proved the point about luck and skill when he was awarded the Golden Safety Car (and Magic Padded Guard Rail) award early on an then took full advantage of his skills in the rest of race. Kubica, another great race. Ferrari an embarrassment with Raikkonen's penalty. Massa tossed a race win away. And Kovalainnen? what if?

But join me in a salute to Force India and Adrian Sutil, the underdog stars of the race!



And here is another guy who could not catch a break today. On the SpeedTV broadcast they were speculating that Rosberg hit an inside curb and slid wide, from the replay it looks like he loses the rear end on turn in and is just a passenger from then on, hard to say for sure without an onboard.

Spare a kind thought..

Let's pause for a second and have a kind thought for the unglamorous end of the F1 grid... These poor saps usually get written off and serve as comic relief for the broadcast color commentators (anyone remember "Johnny Carwash*"?). OK sure, they may not be the very best but what they have to work with is no Mclaren. At times, just holding the car on the road is victory for these guys.

Here is a qualifying lap with Adrian Sutil in the Spyker-Ferrari at the Hungaroring. The car is just a disaster, it understeers then is oversteers, it's nervous over the curbs....nasty...Contrast with Alonso's clip, a different universe. You can have both clips running at once and the difference is stunning...you just feel bad for Sutil.

On a track where the fastest time is achieved by diving to the apex early and hugging the shortest path, poor Sutil must dream of actually being able to hold his car on line, any line!





* Giovanni Lavaggi

They're human too... well, almost.

Another great week end for racing fans, USA Grand Prix at Indianapolis and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Here is a little clip from Friday practice when the drivers are learning the track and chasing the set up... yes, they make mistakes too and not just Adrian Sutil, even Lewis "walks on water" Hamilton. I guess the difference is that come Sunday, Lewis will have stopped making them while chances are Sutil will end up beached.

Speed TV and Fox are really doing a good job covering the US GP, all practices have been shown as well as extended driver interviews. Final Practice is on at 11am est followed by Qualifying.

Attention DVR users: the race tomorrow will be on FOX, not SpeedTV.


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Fernando's axis of oversteer

Tomorrow's qualifying will be exciting but I think McLaren and especially Alonso look to have, as I imagine Ron Dennis might say: "optimized our synergistic driver-car interface in conjunction with our technology partners".


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Heikki Kovalainen decided do a fireworks show to celebrate his success with Renault this year


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and Adrian "Air" Sutil shows Spyker's aeronautical heritage still alive and well.


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thanks to AEF1 for the rips

Traction account overdraw

It does not take much and you are in the wall in Monaco. With comparatively little help from aerodynamics the traction limit of the cars is exposed for the knife edge it it is.

Some action from Thusrday free practice:

Here Hamilton disproves the British press' thinly veiled assertions of his divinity.


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Now you can see that perhaps Hamilton put a rear left on the curbing entering St.Devote and that caused the rear to step out, but Fisichella? It's hard to imagine it can be anything but brake fade or brain fade...


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And here Sutil in the Spyker gets is all wrong at the second Mirabeau. Doesn't take much.


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