The former Spyker, Force India and Sauber F1 driver Adrian Sutil has been arrested in an ‘international raid’, it has been reported.
The 42-year-old has been detained for alleged fraud and embezzlement, according to German newspaper Bild.
Sutil, who has not commented publicly on the allegations, raced in F1 between 2007 and 2014.
Though never a podium-getter, he had a respectable career on the F1 circuit. He finished fourth in the 2009 Italian Grand Prix and fifth in both the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix and the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix. He holds the record for the most career starts without a podium: 128.
In 2011, Sutil was involved in an incident at a Shanghai nightclub when a Lotus team executive Eric Lux was injured with a champagne glass.
Lewis Hamilton, his best friend on the grid at the time, was also in the club but there is no suggestion he had any involvement.
Former F1 star Adrian Sutil has reportedly been detained for alleged fraud and embezzlement in an ‘international raid’
He used to be close friends with Lewis Hamilton but the pair grew apart after the former’s trial
The German was found guilty of grievous bodily harm in 2012 and was handed an 18-month suspended sentence with a fine.
He then left the sport but made a comeback to with Force India in 2013.
Sutil and Hamilton had been good friends since their days as team-mates in F3 but a rift developed between them after the controversy in Shanghai.
Hamilton was summoned as a witness to the incident but declined to testify on his behalf and then changed his mobile phone number without telling Sutil.
Sutil went on to brand Hamilton a ‘coward’ for refusing to stand as a witness in the defence.
He told Die Welt: ‘Basically I only had a problem with one person, which was Mr Lux. He has offered me his hand and said that for him, the issue is finished.
‘What Lewis Hamilton does is not decisive for my ambitions to get back to Formula One. Just as with defeats, you have to deal with disappointments, it’s as simple as that.
‘I think no one should expect to find any friends in the paddock – and I don’t look for them there either. I have enough friends outside of F1.’
Sutil holds the record for the most starts in F1 without scoring a podium with 128
Hamilton also admitted that things had changed between them. ‘Things are different, definitely,’ he said in 2013.
‘We’ve spoken a couple of times and we’ve planned to get together at some stage and just have a chat basically.
‘We’ve been great friends for a long, long time and we’ve had some of the best times together along the way, especially in F3. You can only really count your good friends on one hand maybe so, as people say, good friends are hard to come by. I want to make sure we get things right.’
Sutil’s father was a distinguished musician in Germany.
