It’s not a good time to be Adrian Sutil, is it? Although clearly this was coming.

Last April, Sutil was present at a nightclub in China with several other drivers, celebrating Lewis Hamilton’s win at the Chinese Grand Prix. Eric Lux, part owner of the Lotus Renault team, was there. Whatever happened between the two allegedly led to Sutil assaulting (read: stabbing) Lux with a glass.

Sutil claims he was only trying to throw his drink at Lux or  pour it over his head. Lux required two dozen stitches on a cut to his neck. Supposedly the cut was extremely close to a key facial nerve.

Sutil is charged with causing grievous bodily harm. He faces up to a year in jail.

Several drivers could be called in to testify, namely Hamilton, who is good friends with Sutil. The trial is set to take place at the end of this month in Munich.

If it seems weird that Sutil is being charged in Germany with a crime committed in China, it is because under German criminal code, a German national can be charged for a crime committed abroad at home. Lux chose to press charges in Munich.

Sutil remains without a drive next season after Force India announced Nico Hulkenberg as Paul di Resta’s teammate.

Photo from Flickr user nic_r.

Now that it’s out in the open that nothing is wrong with Lotus’s reactive ride height system, every team is most likely going to have something similar this coming season. (I think most of us understand that by every team, HRT is never included, right?)

As previously mentioned, the car balances itself under braking to help maintain stability and keep aerodynamic performance at its best. There were claims that the system was activated by the driver, but in actuality, it is controlled by the torque under braking.

Ferrari has submitted their system to the FIA to check the legality of it, hopefully in time for the system to be fitted to the car before pre-season testing begins.

No word yet on other teams, but it would be safe to assume that most will be adding a system like this by the time the season starts.

Photo from Flickr user Jarod Carruthers.

Italian media is reporting that Robert Kubica has hurt his leg after taking a tumble on an icy road. Bubble wrap the man, please. It hasn’t even been a year since his rally crash.

Kubica has apparently reopened the fracture in his right tibia, so that’s more recovery time needed for him. Get well soon, AGAIN, Robert.

Lotus introduced a ride height system meant to help keep the car balanced during braking. Looks like everyone else will be scurrying to copy it now that the FIA has deemed it legal.

The Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport claimed the system is adjusted by the driver, which would make it illegal in the eyes of the FIA. Surprise, they were wrong. The system is linked to the suspension rather than the drivers’ pedals.

Lotus has been working with the FIA since first coming up with the idea in 2010.

Out with one Dallas company and in with another? A fitness company started by multiple Olympic gold medal winner Michael Johnson has partnered up with the Williams team.

Michael Johnson Performance works with several Dallas, Texas, based professional sports teams. Their logo will appear on uniforms and the company will provide training for the team’s pit crew.

Does it take a runner to train a pit crew to Red Bull and McLaren times for stops? Time will tell!

For some reason this has led to the IOC has “recognized” the FIA, and the FIA in turn has released a statement that they are delighted to be a part of the Olympic family.

Well then, I propose rallying on a snow course in the Winter Olympics. Sochi is hosting both a Grand Prix and the Olympics in 2014, after all… But sadly it’s just some little “you’re a sport, we see that” recognition that tug-o-war also has. So remember, next time someone tells you racing isn’t a sport, tell them the IOC says otherwise.

Photo from Flickr user Red~Cyan

Hired, fired, hired again. I wouldn’t want to be Sebastien Buemi. After being ousted in favor of Toro Rosso becoming a team for drivers with less experience in Formula 1, Red Bull have announced that Buemi will be the team’s reserve/test drive for Red Bull, and will perform testing duties as needed for his former team too.

In other news, Williams has confirmed they are looking for a new title sponsor after failing to renew a contract with AT&T. Supposedly they are already in negotiations with another telecommunications company for sponsorship. Embratel is thought to be the company, and if that is the case, Bruno Senna would likely be the one driving for the team next season.

Kimi Raikkonen had a seat fitting with Team Lotus today. Raikkonen has said the fanfare surrounding his return has not effected him. He’s Finnish, is this supposed to be a surprise?

Photo from Flickr user brad2021hk.

At least Vitaly Petrov’s problems are adorable, right? His Renault teammate Bruno Senna was one of the three drivers penalized for blocking race leader Lewis Hamilton as he lapped them. Senna believes the rules were applied very inconsistently throughout the race: he wants to speak to race director Charlie Whiting about them.

Pastor Maldonado and Jaime Alguersuari were also penalized (Maldonado was penalized twice, actually) and all around the three agreed that it’s not fair for them to lose 4-5 seconds slowing down for someone when they are still in the race, battling other cars around for position.

Once again, Bernie Ecclestone is claiming the Austin race is on the line, with some less than stellar sources reporting a five week deadline for the promoters to get it together. Considering India was even on the line two weeks prior to the event, it doesn’t seem very fair to single out Austin, does it? Just a note out there to take ANY stories about progress at the Circuit of the Americas and things like this with a grain of salt, no matter who it is.

Driver lineup rumors are of course big right now – it is after all 4 months to the start of next season. Remember that a contract really doesn’t mean much of anything in Formula 1, just ask Nick Heidfeld! Let’s see what there is:

- of course there’s still Kimi Raikkonen over Rubens Barrichello at Williams. Barrichello believes he proved his worth at the race with his 12th place finish, but many in the paddock think Williams would be insane not to sign Raikkonen.

- there’s talk about Team Lotus (that’s Caterham next year) replacing Jarno Trulli with Jerome D’Ambrosio (who is of course, rumored to not be back with Virgin Marussia anyway), Daniel Ricciardo, or Jean-Eric Vergne. Ricciardo of course is still with Red Bull, but obviously there is no spot with the team for him at this time. Red Bull will be providing the team with the KERS system next year so there’s no way that it’s not a possibility.

- Lotus Renault may be looking at Romain Grosjean as Vitaly Petrov’s teammate next season in the event Robert Kubica is not ready for the start of it. There is always the possibility Kubica may not be able to fully return to Formula 1, and Lotus cannot afford to just wait idly at this point.

- And there is still nothing on the Force India front, although Vijay Mallya has promised a decision sooner than later.

Finally, although this blog focuses on Formula 1, it’s still one of the many series under the umbrella of the FIA. And the FIA has really goofed.

The FIA announced their World Endurance Championship calendar yesterday, something that has been called the ILMC in Le Mans racing this year. It featured 6 races from the United States to Silverstone to China. The WEC schedule eliminates one of those American races, Petit Le Mans, and replaces it with a 6 hour race in Bahrain…on the same exact weekend.

Bahrain is hardly even a solid option for Formula 1 come April – there are still serious problems in the country. There has never been an event like this in Le Mans type endurance racing in the Middle East before, and to replace a wildly popular race DOWN TO THE DAY with something new and unlikely to go over well just screams two things.

One: we’re only in it for the money….as if that wasn’t ever obvious. It’s no secret that Bahrain keeps getting these races because they have money. Everyone outside of the Bahraini government and the people who get to participate in the races know that watching a race on their circuit is as exciting as watching paint dry. I can barely make it through an F1 race, I can’t imagine putting up with it for 6 hours.

Two: the FIA doesn’t care much for the American Le Mans series. Although Petit Le Mans is so popular, the draw has definitely been the big European teams coming in. While I can’t claim an alliance to either Audi or Peugeot, I wouldn’t even enjoy the race that much without them there. It would not even be an exaggeration to claim that this could effectively kill the American series. It is highly disappointing that they snubbed Petit to begin with, but it absolutely enrages me that they put this Bahrain race on the same date.

ALMS promises its fans that they are going to do everything they can to make next year’s Petit Le Mans better than this year…I hope they do so!

The F1 Commission today approved the name changes for the long standing battle over the name Lotus. The team currently using Team Lotus will now officially be Caterham next year, and the team currently using Lotus Renault GP will officially be Lotus. Additionally, Virgin Racing will change their name to Marussia.

So remember: that’s two car brands that aren’t actually involved and nobody wants to be a virgin anymore. As Sebastian Vettel so eloquently put it, “there are not many virgins in F1…sorry.”

The changes will need to be approved by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council but that’s basically a given at this point.

The F1 commission also ratified the 2012 calendar.

In other bits of news, involving the team that will be known in the future as Lotus, Robert Kubica may not be ready to return to racing at the start of next year once again, leaving the door open to “phase” him back in. This entirely affects whether it’s Bruno Senna or Romain Grosjean in the driver’s seat for the time being. To me, it just makes sense to keep Senna and not force Grosjean into another partial season again.

Renault as an engine supplier would love to provide engines to a fifth team on the grid. No more than that, says Carlos Tavares. He is perfectly with four. But not six. And apparently not three. The Count is calling, ha ha ha!

And for the team to be known as Caterham in the future news, American driver Alexander Rossi will be testing for the team at the young drivers test in Abu Dhabi. The 20 year old American will also be driving in the GP2 all stars race for Caterham Team AirAsia.

Other drivers most recently announced for the test include Stefano Coletti for Toro Rosso, Jean-Eric Vergne for Red Bull Racing, Romain Grosjean and Kevin Korjus for Lotus Renault, Valterri Bottas and Mirko Bortolotti for Williams, Esteban Gutierrez and Fabio Leimer for Sauber, and Robert Wickens and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs for Virgin.

Although it was announced yesterday, this whole Team Lotus-Karun Chandhok issue got lost in my Grand Prix of America excitement. It does seem that Karun is taking it in stride today after initial disappointment.

Chandhok will not be racing this weekend in place of Heikki Kovalainen or Jarno Trulli. He will participate in Friday practice, so all is not lost for the Indian fans coming out to see him. He’s always come across as WAY more ecstatic about this race than Narain Karthikeyan, so reading through all his enthusiastic tweets and retweets since yesterday even makes me smile.

While he is frustrated, he still hoped everyone that comes out to see him at the brand new circuit has a great time. Chandhok has quite a high profile in India, and he has done well over 2 dozen interviews leading up to the start of the Grand Prix weekend!

My problem is this. Team Lotus say they want to have an “experienced driver in place for their tenth place battle for the Constructor’s Championship.” Those other two teams in this “battle” are HRT and Virgin. How many of these teams have points? Zero. How many times is there an inaugural Indian Grand Prix? Once. It’s sadly not a matter of experience but a matter of luck for any of those 3 teams to make it into the points any time soon. And it’s sad that Chandhok has to sit out for this.

Of course, I’d love to see Team Lotus score some points. I hope they do, but I just highly doubt it. But nonetheless, it’s good to see Karun still doing the best ambassador work he can for his country’s first race. Totally jealous we won’t have that for next year.

Drivers Championship? Check.

Constructors Championship? Double check.

Red Bull could just hit cruise control for the remaining three races of the season.

Christian Horner says that won’t be happening, as he aims to see Mark Webber finish in the points second to Sebastian Vettel. Mark is currently fourth, 13 points behind second place Jenson Button.

Honestly, this wouldn’t even have to be a goal if poor Webber had some better starts! He definitely redeemed himself this weekend by not losing any positions at the start. Horner hopes Webber could even win one of these final races.

On the technical side, Adrian Newey says there are possibilities for upgrades to the current Red Bull chassis…on one condition: these developments cannot give other teams any insight into the team’s 2012 development.

Newey says the focus is obviously on the future car, and the exhaust positioning regulation change is the worst kink they’ll have to work around.

In other news…

- Ferrari say they will not block the Lotus Renault to Lotus/Team Lotus to Caterham name change. They just ask that this name changing crap gets clarified in the future. Also, like everyone else in the world, they would like to see the FIA lay out some kind of framework for name changes that also prevents a team from being able to change their name every time the month changes.

- Team Lotus have yet to provide confirmation or even a “sorry, dude, maybe next time” to Karun Chandok regarding the Indian Grand Prix. Chandok hopes to be able to drive in the inaugural race in his home country, but Tony Fernandes has not let him know either way yet. Here’s hoping you kick out Jarno Trulli of that seat as usual, Karun, but for a whole weekend instead!

- Because I never really wrote a complete post-race story, I didn’t mention that Vitaly Petrov will be receiving a 10 grid spot penalty at the next race for his collision with Michael Schumacher. Additionally, HRT were fined for an unsafe release after Daniel Ricciardo’s pit stop.

Photo from Flickr user First Stop Tires

First and foremost, let’s look at who has to pay up for errors at Singapore!

Renault was fined 7,500 Euros for a communication failure under the safety car. The team told Bruno Senna that he was behind Sergio Perez. He was indeed behind Perez on track, but in actuality Senna was a lap down from the Sauber driver. When Senna went in for the overtake after the safety car, he collided with Perez.

Team Lotus was fined 10,000 Euros for the unsafe release of Heikki Kovalainen in the pit lane. Kovalainen nearly collided with race winner Sebastian Vettel.

Michael Schumacher received a slap on the wrist for his accident, which saw him go slightly airborne as he ran into the back of Sergio Perez’s car. Despite everyone running into poor Sergio, he finished the race and appeared NOT to lash out at anyone…unlike a certain Brazilian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqJfg-vjEgA

Felipe Massa interrupted an interview Lewis Hamilton was doing by slapping and pulling on his rival’s arm while saying “well done, good job.” You can hear Lewis tell him “don’t touch me.” Massa now claims that he is “over it.” Note that his boss, team principal Stefano Domenicali, said in an interview that he believed the contact between Hamilton and Massa during the race was just a racing incident.

Next month’s Indian Grand Prix comes with a slightly ridiculous tax issues. There is some confusion on whether or not drivers will be taxed on their income, but it looks like India wants a seventy percent corporation tax on 1/19 on each team’s turnover. Organizers have claimed they would pay customs and taxes for the teams, but that has yet to be seen. The 70% tax is absolutely insane, though. I’m not entirely sure how it works, but let’s say it’s $19 million (seems way low), 1/19 is a million, and 70% is 700,000. That is just a bit ridiculous for these teams towards the back of the grid. There’s talk of boycotting the event, and I’d completely understand. India, that’s a bit greedy for an event you’ve yet to even hold.

Additionally, a couple weeks ago some press members and others related to the sport were having issues getting visas for visiting India. Journalists need journalist visas, and they cost more than the tourist visas, and for god’s sake, the director of communications for the FIA is unhappy. If things continue like this, this race is going to have the plug pulled on it faster than you can say Istanbul Park.

This article is in German but it is a collection of ugly Formula 1 cars in celebration that rule changes next year will bring us another wave of ugly cars. Hopefully this time around, the cars that are ugly due to their 1970s dates will not be back. There are some hideous things in here.

Martin Brundle has a lovely article over at the BBC F1 news page. Obviously from the title, it relates more to the Schumacher incident, but also talks about Sebastian Vettel and I agree with Brundle so much. It seems so routine and robotic at this point for Vettel to keep on winning, but he is human, he is absolutely passionate about what he does, and it is not just simple for him to win.

Remember that amazing pass on Alonso? Well, turns out Vettel asked the stewards to look at Alonso’s blocking after the race. Nothing was done, same with Schumacher. The overall outlook it seems is that Schumacher was pretty aggressive.

I would assume though overall that because Hamilton finished ahead of Schumacher and Vettel finished ahead of Alonso, nothing was done. But I have a feeling it also means the stewards might not take too kindly to aggressive blocking in the next race.

Now onto other news!

It seems the battle for the Lotus name will be coming to an end. I know Will Buxton mentioned this back during the Belgian Grand Prix as a possibility, but it seems to be happening now. Team Lotus will drop their name, and the Lotus Renault team will be able to take it. Tony Fernandes, boss of Team Lotus, also owns a GP2 team named Caterham AirAsia. It’s possible that they will switch to using this name for the Formula 1 team also. The best part of having Lotus and Caterham in Formula 1 will be how very NOT British they are. (Okay so current Team Lotus is based in England, but that’s not the same as the real Team Lotus days.)

Team Lotus has a few other things going on: Italian driver Jarno Trulli is set for another whinetastic season with the team next year. How do I know it will be whinetastic? Well, that might have to do with a certain reserve driver named Karun Chandok. The Indian driver is backed to drive in his home grand prix, and Tony Fernandes has stated he would replace Trulli because Heikki Kovalainen is the number one driver for the team.

Ouch. Note that the one year contract story broke on Sunday, and the replacement at the Indian Grand Prix/assertion that he’s the number two driver is from today. Surprise!

Vitantonio Liuzzi received a five grid spot penalty for the chaos caused by his off at the start of yesterday’s race. He will be starting 29th at the Singapore Grand Prix. No, seriously, they should consider putting him back far enough that he can’t be “forced into the grass.”