"I respect him as a sportsman, but in private he's not on my level": When Lewis Hamilton's former friend publicly called him out

F1 driver Adrian Sutil had previously claimed that he respected Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton as a "sportsman" but did not consider him to be "on his level" in private. The then-McLaren driver had been friendly to the former German driver in their early days in the sport.

But Hamilton decided to cut ties with the former Force India driver after the latter got in an altercation at a nightclub after the Brit's 2011 Chinese GP victory. Sutil was charged with causing bodily harm after assaulting Lotus executive Eric Lux with a champagne glass.

The German had hoped that Lewis Hamilton would act as a witness but never stood up for him, as he said (as per Bleacher Report):

"These kind of people I don't really respect. I respect him [Lewis Hamilton] as a sportsman, but in private he's not on my level and I don't need to waste time with those people. I'm happy I realized what kind of a person he is,"

Adrian Sutil, who was given an 18-month suspension and a £167,000 fine, too admitted that his friendly ties with the 2007 world champion had broken down and added:

"He always said he is my friend but he wished to suddenly disappear, he changed his number. I saw him in the paddock and he always said, 'Yeah, we can sit down and talk about it', but he never arrived.

"I have good friends, people I can learn from and this is the most important. I'm happy that I found out earlier rather than later. On the circuit, this is business. He's a great racing driver but we haven't really spoken about it."

When former world champion denied being friends with Lewis Hamilton

Former two-time world champion Fernando Alonso had previously stated that he and his former McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton could "never be friends" as they did not have much in common.

Speaking with DAZN's documentary, the Spanish driver spoke about his first stint with the Woking-based outfit and his dynamic with the then-rookie Hamilton, saying (via GPBlog):

"We were in the same team, the same garage, we often travelled together, we were at meetings together and we started to notice that there was friction. We were young, immature and we had a lot of clashes. I don't think we will ever be friends in the future. I don't think we have many things in common."

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were tied on points during the 2007 season and the acrimonious time resulted in the latter departing the team at the end of the year. The duo have continued to battle on track heading into their 40s and continue to fight for top positions in F1.