Adrian Sutil is back in Formula 1, after Force India confirmed that the German will be racing alongside Paul di Resta in 2013. Sutil did a very decent job for the team in the course of 2011, finishing ninth in the World Championship. This followed four years of rather inconsistent racing with the team from 2007 onwards, during which he finished 19th, 20th, 17th and 11th. His progress, to a large extent, reflected the development of the car, but there is no question that in the final season he showed more maturity, at least on the race track. Off the track it was rather different. Early in the year in China he was involved in an unseemly incident in a nightclub in Shanghai, which resulted in Lux being stabbed in the neck with a champagne glass by Sutil. Lux later took legal action and early last year Sutil was found guilty in a German court of causing bodily harm to Lux. The judges in Munich viewed video of the incident and concluded that it had not been an accident and Sutil was given an 18-month suspended sentence and was fined $260,000. The prosecution has asked for a more severe penalty, arguing that a professional sportsman is a role model and should not act in the way in which Sutil acted.
It looked as though the incident might finish his F1 career, which would not have been a surprise, but Sutil appears to have found some more money and team owners Vijay Mallya and Roy Sahara have not encumbered themselves with any moral issues raised by the case.
Sutil says that he has no problems with visiting any of the countries where F1 holds races. One has to believe that he and his management have had words with the necessary governments to make sure that all is well. Some of the immigration laws are quite harsh and one can only hope that all the groundwork has been done and dispensations have been agreed. Trying to get into countries without having done this would not be very smart and one presumes that the team will have wanted documentary evidence that there will not be any problems.
It looks unlikely that Jules Bianchi will be staying with the team as its reserve driver. In the statement, Mallya said that he is “hopeful” that the team can continue working with the Frenchman, but if that was going to be the case, one would have expected the deal to have been announced at the same time. Bianchi will likely go elsewhere, where there is need of a reserve driver, or perhaps he might even find his way into a race car with Marussia.
I wonder what Eric Lux makes of this?
I hope Eric Lux has learnt to keep his hands to himself, and not attempt to lift someone out of a chair who is just there to have a drink with his friends..
Adrian Sutil is a *classically trained* concert pianist apart from needing his hands to drive a F1 car, does anyone REALY believe that he would have put all of that at risk to assault Eric Lux ?
Can we please get away from the ” he is a criminal” and look at the possibility that it could well have been an accident and unintentional on Sutil’s behalf ? That goes for you too Joe..
Sorry, bit if I judge says you are a criminal, you ARE a criminal, whether Jeremy says so or not…
Not “going behind” the judge’s decision, nor my other strong negative views about the man’s behaviour, but a school friend was a highly talented musician, this was his life, not pushed, it was his true love, and the London Philharmonic took him at a exceptionally young age. He celebrated with a skiing holiday. Smashed his hand to smithereens. Not long later, he jumped to his death off a train.
So Jeremy has a very good point about musicians and the importance of their hands, regardless how the verdict was decided. I do wish I’d just made up that story. But what if he was pushed into learning piano, as I relate to further down in another comment? (I was, and it’s only since recently I got a tendon problem causing pain when typing, that I suddenly place immediate value consciously on my hands) Would he care so much, then? Moreover, if he was conscious of risking his hands glassing someone (how easy it would be to slice his tendons, with the smallest mistake .. ) does that not indicate the more the man may be in need of some kind of help?
I’m no legal expert but I think it’s possible for someone who is trained as a concert pianist to commit a common assault. Anyone can lose their temper and do something that they will later regret – regardless of their level of education.
I never quite understood just how Sutil got in trouble in Germany for an incident that occurred in a completely different jurisdiction. I presume it had to do with him being a German national. Still, if he’d stabbed Lux in Montreal, he’d have been tried in Canada.
Now as far as his ability to enter our fair country, it shouldn’t be an issue. We regularly allow sporting/entertainment ‘names’ into the country even though some have a chequered past. Of course paperwork will have to be done however its usually pretty straightforward, at least too the casual observer.
The Germans have laws that allow jurisdiction aboard.
We might see some illness preventing Sutil from attending the USA GP, for example…
Hmm Marussia are looking for a new engine supplier next year…
Solid driver, fast and reliable.
However what about Force India’s engines for 2014? I guess Ferrari is not impressed with this choice.
What about the Technical Support Contract with McLaren that is its final year?
Looks like they have a massive task ahead to make it into 2014.
“I guess Ferrari is not impressed….”
Could it be the other way around?
That is to say, if Ferrari are not willing to supply engines to Force India, why would they (Force India) take on a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy?
Martin
what a shame… first of all sutil has had his chances and while he is not a bad driver he is not a great driver. So a young gun should have got a chance to prove himself. Not to mention the fact that for F1 and the team is damaging to have a driver who is under suspended jail threat
While Sutil isn’t a ‘great’ driver, he’s certainly more solid than a lot of drivers on the grid. He also brings some money so I guess FIF1 made a decision.
The reserve driver could be quite busy
Is it merely coincidence that at the same time that Force India’s decision was leaked to the media, that Marussia issued a statement announcing that they were looking for a new engine supplier in 2014 and beyond?
Hopefully the have a teetotal clause in his contract.
However when people fail they are taken to court. The law then acts and if guilty the person is suitably punished.
Should we continue to punish someone after that and if so how long for?
I suspect the whole affair has had a sobering effect on Sutil and he will be a better person. I have met him a couple of times at the factory and found him to be extremely nice. However I do believe he was occasionally partial to becoming ‘tired and emotional’ which may account for his behaviour in said incident…
I for one wonder if this was the right choice but IMHO a better choice than PDR who brings nothing in particular to the team in any way shape or form
For the moment Sutil has not yet finished his suspended sentence. If laws preclude him visiting countries then that is his problem. I do not question the decision of Force India to have him drive. That is their decision. If I were a team owner I would not want him, particularly if I was a team sponsored by alcohol products. It is bad enough what happened in the past, but who is to say it will not happen again. As far as I am concerned, and it is a very personal opinion, the incident showed a side to his character that hints at instability. Normal people don’t do this stuff.
Force India don’t mind all this, so good for them for giving him another chance. I hope the decision does not bite them in the bottom.
One of our major broadcasters recently employed someone who was serving a drink-driving ban to present F1 programmes – and she had no problem entering any countries. To my mind that sets a far worse example as the sport prides itself on promoting road safety.
Now, I’m in no way excusing what Sutil did, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that the court imposed a relatively lenient sentence because they took into account that – according to those who have seen the CCTV footage – Lux allegedly instigated the altercation and Sutil lashed out. It was stupid and potentially dangerous, but he’s hardly the hardened criminal that some would have you believe.
Joe, I used to work in an emergency room in my younger days, and I assure you, normal people do that stuff, and then some .
Violence comes in many forms, everyone is capable of it, and bad things can happen .
All it takes is a little mishap, some booze, a harmless argument, not necessarily intent or a violent nature .
Oh, I see, so there is no such thing as free will? We cannot stop ourselves doing things?
… like being sarcastic?
If he was significantly intoxicated..?
I don’t know about German Law, but in the UK the presence of alcohol and intoxication is seen as an aggravating factor, rather than a mitigating factor.
Normal people do all sorts of things but that doesn’t make all those things acceptable.
I agree with Joe that this is not a normal action and shows a certain side of his character. Personally I’ve been very drunk many many times and sometimes had arguments or minor altercations but not once did it occur to me to stab someone in the neck with my glass or any other action to cause severe injury or worse. Sutil can do the job obviously but so would many other guys who are available but the real question is would you want him in your team? I wouldn’t but that’s just my opinion. If they wanted a consistent points scorer they could have had Glock or Kovalainen and if they wanted to take a chance on a potential superstar then Bianchi is ready to go. I don’t understand taking him back in this situation.
Is he coming back with a few million from Medion? That’s probably what swung things in his favour.
One wonders what Lux actually said to the lad to provoke that sort of reaction. Sutil doesn’t look like a brawler, so as Joe says, this probably indicates there’s a few spanners loose in the works..
Couple of years back the french footballer Zidan was provoked to head butt an Italian defender on the pitch, and i think the offending remark was to do with intending to sleep with his mother and sister. But Sutil doesn’t have a sister….
Joe please ! normal people as you describe them ? do that stuff all the time, get real..
I love your blog and it’s the first place I check each day..
Not in the world I live in.
Then I believe you live in a rarified world. No offence, Joe, but if provoked sufficiently, many people will respond will respond in a manner that is not in their standard make up.
I don’t fancy your world much.
It’s the real one, the one we all live in, joe. Sometimes people lose control; we’re not all perfect.
A small percentage.
There’s a big difference between having an angry outburst and slashing someone’s neck with a broken glass. Even in anger the vast majority of people know not to and instinctually would not slash another persons neck with a broken glass because there is an awareness this takes things to a whole other level, potentially fatal.
It’s just plain stupid to suggest that ordinary people do these things, they don’t . How many of you have friends or associates in the 30 yr old range that behave in that manner. Yes some hardened deadbeat in the worst part of town may “bottle” someone but that’s hardly ordinary behaviour representative of the general public and certainly not befitting an F1 driver with corporate sponsors.
Where are you people living the Wild West ? See you out by the corral
No we are living in the real world, and good ordinary people do make mistakes.. Who say’s that he slashed the neck of Eric Lux, I think it may have been more a case of trying to protect himself while he had a glass in his right hand ??
I am not condoning acts of violence, but *if* it was an accident, then it was just that an accident …
The judge that gets pulled over for a drink driver situation, does that make that make him or her a criminal ?
Sorry, but the judge said that he committed a crime. We must respect the law in a civilised society. Obviously you do not respect the law.
You obviously have seen the video the judges viewed. You’re very well connected! There is no «if» then, you’re either sure he’s not guilty or you should keep quiet if he is. Anyway, he’s been found guilty, condemned, and withdrew his appeal. If he accepts his sentence, so should you. End of story.
Normal people don’t plunge a broken champagne flute into someone’s neck.
It shows he cannot be relied upon to control his temper.
Maybe it’s normal in Texas, but not the rest of the world.
Normal people … who have psychological or anger issues. Are you normal? Would you stab someone in the neck because they said something to you that you didn’t like?
Canada won’t let you in if you have drink drive conviction on your record (I don’t). Can’t believe they are going to expunge an assault for which he is still serving suspended sentence.
I seem to recall asking that very question some time ago and being attacked for being mean to poor Adrian.
The question remains. Why would they let him in when they object to others.
And what about China, isn’t there a risk that the Chinese authorities may want to have a chat with Adrian over the Champagne glass incident? Isn’t there the possibility that they will ask him to stay in the country while the courts decide what to do?
I don’t believe that would be good publicity for the team.
That is a very good point. Sutil bolted from the country before the Chinese authorities could speak to him…
The Sutil case, visa or not, is down to what he can bring to Canada.
As a number of people have pointed out, why is it that some sport / movie stars – Z listed wantabe’s with a far worst criminal records / history than him get to come in and out of Canada, where as the average Canadian maybe barred from going to America?
The simple answer as pointed out in a major newspaper article in a Canadian newspaper on this subject of exchange of data on their own citizens, who travel, is the so called “economical benefit” it brings to Canada. So in the Sutil case you could say that by his racing in the Grandprix he brings some form of economical benefit – value to Canada. Who are his sponsors?
This new exchange of data with America has caused me major hassle, in that I now have to travel with both passports, which never happen in the past. America is pretty much running the intelligence business in Canada these days it seems.
Maybe for a ‘regular’ person however Sutil’s mgmt will undoubtedly get a ,ministerial exemption for him. It happens regularly – just look at all of the sports figures who enter seemingly without issue.
This is true… the majority of Premiership Footballers seem to be guilty of adultery and/or violent conduct sometime throughout their careers but they often get waved through customs.
Canadian rules on “criminal inadmissabilty” even for tourist entry are a very, very blunt stick. Normally it’s a minimum of five years from conviction before you can apply to have record expunged… even for something as simple as a DUI. A serious assault like this, while drunk? I have $20 (CDN) says he won’t be at race in Montreal.
…..Actually he might not even get in to US.
As I’ve said elsewhere, there are ways the Canadian government can prevent someone getting whacked by that stick, if they want to.
Canadian authorities may not want to rock the boat as recently the Canadian
Govt Pension Plan has invested in F1 . Then again Sutil may not want to travel to Montreal via USA ??
It does seem a high risk strategy for merely an OK driver, I hope the payment for the drive is all up front! Surely, someone from Mallya’s significantly-sized legal team must have checked the legalities …
The signing suggests either Ferrari aren’t overly interested in Bianchi’s future or perhaps aren’t keen on an association with Force India given Di Montezemolo’s political aspirations and Mallya’s business record; or that Force India were demanding more from Ferrari than their value to the world’s most powerful brand image, especially with Marussia needing engines (and possibly a driver too).
Joe
The Australian immigration form you fill out on the plane asks if you have been convicted of a criminal offence, so that may be the reason Bianchi is coming to Melbourne, see you at St Kilda on the 13th. By the way any comment on the 50 year deal Bernie is supposedly offering Melbourne?
Promotional jibber jabber!
I see you are full swing at it again. What is it you have against the man? He was provoked and lost control, got his sentence and lost his job for a long time. He got punished enough for what he did. Why can’t you give it a break?
Sorry but the judge was not called Werner. She said Adrian was a criminal, not me. I reported it (correctly). No amount of “poor Adrian” removes the fact that he did what he did and is being punished for it.
Joe – is there any suggestion that FI looked at some of the other drivers recently let go? They seem to have a facination with Sutil. Perhaps better the devil you know?
I watch alot of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts… F1 is my fav sport so stick with me on this) and the companies that put on the shows i.e UFC, ONEFC, Bellator etc. have some fighters that compete with criminal histories.
The UFC holds events all around the world and the other organizations have fighters from all around the world to compete in the USA and Canada.
Several fighters with criminal histories have all been granted Visa’s to compete in foreign countries to compete/ go to work and earn a living for them selves and their families.
With great legal teams and the the budgets of F1 teams i don’t see how they
will stop some one with a first offence and on a suspended sentence the right to earn an income when their profession requires them to travel.
Like i said Fighters with GBH convictions, robberies, drug offences etc. are allowed to travel the world and perform their jobs successfully with out trouble.
P.S i loved the comment from Joe “If I were a team owner I would not want him, particularly if I was a team sponsored by alcohol products.”
Hi Lux’s Bandaid,
(Must confess I’d love to know the origin of your nickname / handle . .)
I also agree with the team owner / booze sponsorship view Joe takes. It’s at best bad management of a brand and the impressions of a team, and at worst we go down a slippery slope.
Oh, in the past, there’s been all sorts gone on in F1, even rumors a team existed purely to shove cocaine in the chassis tubes, though that idea is out the window with monocoques, unless a certain RB driver was on a charge to deliver some substance he didn’t want anyone to weigh ..
Two things in play here: firstly that US Immigration is strict to the point of being silly. What’s the point having access to virtually all our lives electronically, if irrespective a legitimate visitor such as our host is to be bothered enough for it to impede his progress in life, no less like me, having relatives there . . Second that begrudgingly, I approve of countries taking a serious view of who comes and goes. I risk trading on Daily Mail Reader ground there, so move on quickly to the thought that heavy handedness is far less necessary now, but the way it fails is that much of the world’s life is not conducted on line and we’re still a statistically small bunch whose emails can be correlated with credit cards and even our pseudo anonymous postings here. Therefore there remains a need to be consistent as to examination.
Not sure how to couch this story, but my late BP managed a very well known classical composer, who was a conscientious objector. It took State Department clearance to allow him to visit the really super orchestra in the US who were the best expositors of his work at the time. (I’ve cited this story before, here, so feel okay, if you can guess who, my respect to your cultural breadth.) It can simply be overkill.
Fortunately this has never come up in interview before, but the US has a irritating habit of expecting it can sign treaties and everyone else obeys but it will chew the cud on the “problem”. When Monaco comes around, and you see the SBM banners, they are the first in history to enforce a trademark under the Madrid Protocol Treaty, finally making one (and so far as I know, only one) example of the US courts recognising that otherwise fundamental agreement on names and patents and copyrights. Only in F1, eh?
One of the reasons I am often found to be defending the US, particularly since they have been receiving so much ire lately, is because I do want to call them out on deals I think they wilfully reneged on. Bretton Woods, cough splutter . .
I think that can actually be argued to segue into the All Hail Business attitude of the mis – late 80s, the idea of the primacy of the commercial arts. In that there was much need to keep the cups moving to distract the audience. Also noted in log ago comments of mine, look up Walter Wriston, and how Citibank ran the petrodollars. Though counter to that, a Italian man in a British banker’s uniform created the Eurodollar market for bonds, because of slip ups in American thinking. That invasion of American bulge bracket banks to the City of London was them wanting back what business we rather neatly lifted.
Still, that said, it can grate that America’s unsavoury characters seem to have too easy a pass hereabouts. Someone should look at that from a PR point of view.
If you’ve not seen it, Rourke in The Wrestler, is a fantastic work. Rourke was at school with De Nero, all sorts of huge names, and reckoned to be the most talent. In that, though I am too squeamish for some scenes, he shows it.
And that’s a contradiction, also, that American culture tilts so hard at redemption of marginal or even criminal characters, yet has such a hard reaction to bad behaviour. Of course, Hollywood has a very liberal view, but they’d not sell unless they could get the flyover states to go. Naturally, it’s a very moral position, the extremes of punishment and redemption. Bresson and many French avant guardes artistes delve into the human moral limits, Polanski, really that list is too long. But somehow America’s pitch comes across to absolutist. One has to think of the immigration, that German was commonly spoken until the first world war, and so on, and the vastness of the territory, to start to understand. But it’s still, in my view, a pitch that could be improved.
Raise a glass in celebration, just stand clear.
I would love to see his US “O” visa form.
That’s the one where as a guideline for exceptional talent, the kind that deserves a waiver of other conditions, they cite, hmm, having been awarded the Nobel prize as a good proof of being a exceptional person!
Okay, it’s not as hard as that, but they make a real point, not only on the form guidelines, but in interview. Being just collared, not even charged, let along convicted, discards your rights to free US entry.
If that’s happened to you, as it did to me, and a surprising number of people in their otherwise blameless lives, well my advice is it’s meant to be a intimidating process. Just absolutely and totally do not think you can fanny them. The process makes that almost impossible, but I mean in interview: it’s a human reaction to fib and gloss a bit when under scrutiny, especially if you are embarrassed, but that’s exactly what the interview is deigned to look for. If you are self honest you are very much less likely to be a problem. Think about it, if you are so, under pressure, you’re likely to be less of a bother to your own life as well. .
It’s no stigma. A friend who is qualified at the New York Bar, also here and in Paris, son of a judge whose review was thoroughly misinterpreted but changed swathes of important law, is put through the same tortuous process regularly for a business visa, and of all people, well I think my friend would die in shame if he was even arrested. Or, for that matter if he ever held a political view, either. The man wanted in life only really to play sax . .
Or if you naturally don’t know my pal’s squeaky clean life, even Joe has a bother to get his visa.
I presume Adrian Sutil has sensible management, and they pre cleared his US entry long ago.
You just have to imagine this was a bit of a uphill task.
That very likely could have been a delay in his announcement.
Also, for him to make the application, he’d have to have a contract, and that contract being conditional on his entry for the Austin race, presumably conditional, well that would have made the application harder. They like absolutes, do the officers at UCIS.
“Evidence that the beneficiary has received a major, internationally-recognized award, such as a Nobel Prize, or evidence of at least (3) three of the following: ”
and so on, in case you think I was exaggerating!
from http://www.uscis.gov/ but not pasting a ugly scrawl of a URL here
. . .
The question that bugged me the most was approximately, “So you’ve virtually no family in England, compared with the USA, and your American family are wealthy, so why would you want to go back?”. (Good bloody question, actually, though I could have answered, “How dare you! We’re from Yorkshire – how can you be so insensitive you blithering clod to suggest my family are a soft touch!”) ” I nearly blew it by getting angry at the implicit insinuation my cousins would support me being a illegal immigrant, but managed to calmly – almost calmly anyhow – reply that I am confident that if I wanted to settle, my family would simply sponsor me. Realizing how angry I was, I was sweating bullets, though. I so wanted to say “how very dare you” in a put on posh English accent, the kind that my mother’s elocution lessons to hide her Halifax accent sometimes throws up rather strained, though we do get a mutual laugh. I could have wept. There’s a legend about one of my school teachers, that got as far as the press, that he got smashed returning from a school trip to France, and having lost all the boys’ passports declared at Dover, “Goddammit, Man, We’re British, Let Us Pass!” and apparently they did, right before arresting him for being sozzled in charge of 20 boys he’d vouched for at the duty free counter .. He was definitely the popular choice for when we applied for school outings . . Well, that’s what you spend a inheritance on for education (and reason umpteen why I quit that card game) but most likely not any way to endear your passage to the United States .. .
And so the Joey Barton of F1 returns! Always amusing to see Adrian’s fans trying to deny what happened in the Chinese nightclub, as if they somehow know what happened better than the judge who saw the footage, heard witness testimony etc…
and now Marrusia sign Bianchi…
So I wonder when we are gonna get to know force india’s reserve driver now…
something tells me that Narain Karthikeyan will finally get to drive the VJM06 as a reserve driver on fridays
Not often I write a really long comment I am passionately interested to communicate, and ditch it, but earlier I was about to click “Post Comment” on a almost epic description of my thoughts as to Adrian Sutil.
It went on too far, because I was describing how as a boy I really got under too much pressure, flaked out from the life my parents planned and so on. I was thinking aloud just how much pressure a young driver is under in this recent era, and delved into the subject because my experience is that it took a awful lot of time to work through that boiler room experience, and I am not even sure the effect on my personality will go away. I tore away as a teen, but messed up also as a adult, or got myself into a awful state when my father died, he being the source of so much of that expectation and pressure that it flooded back and I simply broke down. I was extremely lucky, because I had been sensitive to wanting not to take the path I was shoehorned into originally, so had more than a casual idea what was going on years later, and had grown up with close friends in the same boat. I made sure to engage friends, relieve immediate pressures, and started reading up on psychology, and above all I talk incessantly, so although emotionally I was bust, I was not bottling up. Yet even then, although I “knew” what was going on with me, reliving so much because of a loss, suddenly the last male in my family, all sorts of incidental pressures, it was excruciatingly hard and slow progress to start addressing that.
You see I am looking at Adrian Sutil now and wondering if the reason he should not be in F1 is more important to him personally. It is very possible this life he’s led, and undoubtedly he has shown raw talent beyond many many others, to get where he is, is not a cause of the mental process that led to his violence. I’m worrying about the man, because my step siblings (who I usually do not differentiate and regard as normal siblings) also had a great deal of pressure to perform thrust upon them. Our father grew up in genuine poverty, and it’s absolutely understandable for such a experience to make a man driven, and to exhort his children to work and play hard. But the difference between me and my dad’s first family, is when I was a boy, he had just mellowed enough to tell me all these stories of his early life, so I had a lot of clues to work with, to understand what was happening around me. The sadness is that objectively my step siblings are emotionally crippled. They crossed a police cordon to take from our home all my father’s writing, I think because they meant to horde it or protect it somehow, I was told hysterically if I took legal action it would all be burned, and all sorts, and it pains me to see the empty entries on Amazon, because my dad always set to communicate positively to the world. But so doing they committed a crime, and removed from my life every record of my very happy childhood, compounding my loss. Pressure can drive the most respectable of people to bad behaviour.
There may be a adequate explanation for Sutil’s behaviour, but saying he just had one drink too many doesn’t cut it for me. I am actually concerned he’s making the wrong move in his life, as opposed to his career, and there’s nobody around him to tell him better. Likely everyone around him are too concerned with money or other distractions.
I’ve no sympathy at all for the man save for the fact that I know what harm is caused to everyone around someone who is emotionally damaged, and that he may be missing a chance to heal his own life, and that I wish he was dealing with whatever it is led him to act as he did, instead of causing a moral dilemma for this sport. My step siblings are in their 70s, now, but exhibit no emotional maturity I can relate to whatsoever. Whilst I worry more immediately, if Sutil may pose a danger on track, or cave in to another horrendous impulse, it is very much also in my mind, that if he is wound up to such a extent as caused this to pass, though he may never become sufficiently aware as to recognise this, if he does not deal with that, he is discarding his own life, and by my own observations in my life, depriving who loves him, which is to me a greater crime. When there is no obvious motivation for violence, I am tempted to think the person has no self regard and that lack of self regard extends to others. Lack of self regard is very common when children have been pushed by ambitious parents, and I lost several friends to suicide.
I’ll conclude with excerpts from my draft:
I can remember the omnipresent threat of money, that being expended was not merely a small fortune, but effectively someone’s life and their ambitions for you represented by that cold hard cash. There’s a lot more people throwing money at you in racing, with expectations. I looked at Adrian’s bio on the wiki thing, and the words “a talented pianist” scream out at me. That too often is something a parent wishes, not that the child wants. Those words read to me as a admonishment, not a compliment, “but our boy could have been anything!”, the perennial disappointment of parents who dream rather than growing up themselves.
Not knowing him, I am not going to pass judgement at a personal level. I’d not cite such personal example if I wished to condemn him, though it would be a sin of vanity to think he might ever read this. But I don’t perceive he has served his probation, and I worry that the sport needs to think much harder how it behaves. I hope one day to tell stories to my children of the amazing and honourable endeavours of drivers in the F1 of my era. That this mess is tolerated, I fear deprives me of telling such stories, save as a different education.
Bad form I know to respond to myself, but, if I can ever make my comments shorter, is there a vacancy for a Jerry Springer of F1?