Jules Bianchi

Jules Bianchi was born in Nice, France in August 1989 and now at the age of 23, after a few false starts, he’s landed himself a race seat in F1 for the 2013 season.

Bianchi comes from quite a successful racing dynasty as the grandson of three times GT world champion Mauro Bianchi and grandnephew of Lucien Bianchi who drove in F1 for various teams between 1959 and 1968 even scoring a 3rd place podium for Cooper in 68 at Monaco. He also won the Le Mans 24 Hour the same year so young Jules has a bit to live up too to keep the family name in good check. The good news is he comes highly rated and well thought of so has the potential to do so. He jumped out of Karting and into single seater racing in 2007 taking on the French Formula Renault 2.0 series and winning it at the first attempt. He was on the podium in all but 2 of the 13 races and won the title by a clear 50 points beating a certain Charles Pic into 4th place. Bianchi then jumped up a class to drive for ART in the Formula 3 Euro Series and in 2008 came third in the series which was won by Nico Hulkenberg, In 2009 he found his feet proper and cruised to the title. His team mates that year were Valitteri Botas and Esteban Gutierriez (who came 3rd and 9th in the championship respectively). From there Bianchi jumped into GP2 and was expected to carry on his miraculous rise to the top already receiving such high plaudits as “The next Lewis Hamilton”. Unfortunately for Bianchi this is where his career stalled a bit as 2010 became the first season he’d ever had in single seater racing where he failed to score a race victory in the category he was racing in however for most it would have been considered an impressive first season in GP2 coming 3rd behind Maldonado and Perez (beating Pic and Van Der Garde in the process) and some hoped it was to be a platform for him to build his career on. 2009 was to be a year of a disappointment for Bianchi, although he was to finally gain some victories in GP2 his form was patch at best and his season was full of too many errors, he once again finished 3rd behind the runaway champ Grosjean and just 1 point behind Fillipi (he once again beat Pic and Van Der Garde) and all that potential appeared it wasn’t going to be realised.

Whoever it was who decided Bianchi was best off out of GP2 made a brave but good decision on his behalf. Moving him to the 3.5 World Series allowed him to take on the reserve role with Force India and stand on the brink of an F1 drive. He was able to be with the team on race weekends and even ran in Friday practice sessions, Meanwhile he repaired the damage done to his rep by giving it his all in the World Series, he was eventually beaten in the last race of the season to the title by Robin Frijns by 4 points but he’d done enough for people to start paying attention again. With Hulkenberg leaving Force India he was favourite for a long time to take the second seat there but after a long drawn out saga the seat went to Sutil and his hopes of running in F1 in 2013 looked dashed but literally 2 days after that announcement Luiz Razia’s sponsorship deal fell through and thus his seat at Marussia became available and Bianchi had himself a seat and finally a place with the big boys.

Bianchi is well respected in the pit lane and has been on Ferrari’s books since 2009 (there was even talk of him taking the race seat from Luca Bador at one point), He was their officially reserve driver in 2011 and was ‘loaned’ out to Force India in 2012. He’s had many opportunities to drive a Ferrari at various different test sessions and its no offence to him to say they have been pulling certain strings for him. Ferrari seemed exceptionally keen to get him in a race seat for 2013 and rumours are already rife that Marussia may get an engine deal out of running with him. It has been suggested in some quarters that Ferrari are thinking he may be an ideal replacement for Massa and want him to get some F1 experience and see how he runs. We can all be pretty sure that Bianchi would rather have been proving his worth fighting in the midfield battle for Force India rather than being adrift at the back like he probably will be but maybe, just maybe, this might actually be an advantage for Bianchi’s career. At Marussia the pressure is off as no expects him to achieve anything down there. For a driver who is prone to errors under pressure it could be that finding his feet in a pressurless situation is exactly what he needs, he even has the excuse that his team mate has by far more testing time than he does(although that one won’t last for long). Bianchi already has his foot in the door at a team further up the field and is only really looking to show he has the ability to drive a car to its potential so if he can beat his team mate and mix it with the Caterhams he’s pretty much shown that, anything else is a bonus.

I’m interested to see how Bianchi runs and he is certainly one of the more deserving of rookies this season. So what do we think of our 4th Frenchmen on the grid? A Ferrari driver in waiting or just another 1 year Marussia wonder?

 

[jez101]

Thanks for that link rufus_mcdufus . He does come across as a very odd fellow, but Hartstein does have the qualifications to comment on these issues even if some of his comments are quite un-PC. eg, "Before the Reform Frenzy Starts", http://formerf1doc.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/2271/

It is hard to read some of those things while a guy is fighting for his life and / or may suffer severe consequence for the rest of his life, but it is hard to ignore the points that Hartstein makes.

 

[Josh]

Here's the full statement by Bianchi's family. Not looking good.

 

[Bushi]

Well putting the blame with Bianchi is a bit to harsh in my eyes. Saying he was aquaplaning because he was driving to fast under double yellows is a bit rash, seeing that a Caterham spun off under the safety car.

 

[teabagyokel]

It is a little harsh given the circumstances, but I do think Hartstein's consideration of yellow flag regulations should be taken into account by the various rule-makers in F1.

I saw an idea in the comments beneath the article that a new flag be introduced to make clearer the distinction between yellows and double-yellows. I think that has some merit.

 

[Incubus]

It probably does but it doesn't matter how many flags you wave of what colour they are if drivers can't actually see them because of poor visibilty, which Sutil claimed to have been the most important factor in what led to the crash's severity.

 

[Boyle]

It probably does but it doesn't matter how many flags you wave of what colour they are if drivers can't actually see them because of poor visibilty, which Sutil claimed to have been the most important factor in what led to the crash's severity.

Quite. When you have a race held late on an afternoon with deteriorating light because the powers that be want to keep it to a European schedule then visibility certainly becomes a problem. Add to that the severely dark clouds overhead and the heavy rain falling on the visor. I don't quite think I can appreciate how dark it was at the time of the accident because the camera settings obviously obscure this. This may or may not have played a part in Bianchi's incident but I'd wager that flags have been unintelligible in such conditions before and will be again.

Whilst on the subject of time, I don't mind getting up at 3/4/5 in the morning and it makes no difference for me (and other fans) how early it is in the morning. If there is such a concern about keeping to a European schedule, I have a solution - hold the races in Europe!

Sorry, I digressed there. Just get well soon Jules! Sadly, I don't think we'll see you in an F1 car again

 

[jez101]

I agree that it is harsh Bushi , especially once you summarise what Hartstein says as, "Jules was to blame" as you did.

I agree that the implication of the article is that he thinks that the driver was a factor but I think he is saying that to prevent the next accident and not to allocate blame for this one.

If preventing the next big one takes a highly qualified doctor upsetting a few people by asking some harsh questions, I'm all for it.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Okay I think some sense needs to be talked now and not just emotional garbage, Sutil has no idea if Bianchi could see the yellow flags or not as it was his car that caused the yellows and he was in no position to comment on that factor and even if Bianchi couldn't see them there is a display in the cockpit to tell him of the track status I have no idea if he slowed for the flags or not and nor does anyone else at this juncture, it is easy to blame all and sundry at this point and absolve the victim of any fault, but the fact is all we know for sure is that Bianchi is severely injured and absolutely nothing else..

 

[teabagyokel]

Surely, given that the drivers are notified by a yellow LED in their cockpits, said LED would be more noticeable than in bright sunshine for example. I think that one is swings and roundabouts.

I don't think visibility is a contributing factor unless (a) he was avoiding another car out on track or (b) the LED display was not working.

 

[Incubus]

But that's something I always wondered though. How exactly is the LED display activated in the case of a yellow flag and do they automatically come on when approaching the scene of a crash, if so how, or do they just come on whenever there yellow flags somewhere on the track without specifying where?

And Suti as far as I know didn't say anything about flags anyway, just said that the lack of visibility was a factor in spinning off in the first place. When you think about the level of concentration required to drive an F1 car in the wet guiding yourself on the engine noise from the car in front (which is something we have all heard drivers say they have to do in the wet) on tyres that might well not be at their optimim temperature it's easy to imagine how the question of someone going off or not can be purely down to luck., especially on a track with elevation changes that tend to have rivers gathering here and there across it. Someone went off spinning in the early laps under the safety car didn't they?

I know some drivers said the conditions were not that bad towards the end of the race. Well, maybe they were for them. But they weren't driving Marussias were they?

 

[Brogan]

Sutil caused the flags...

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

A big issue with the lack of visibility was not being able to see the rivers and deeper wet patches to try and avoid aquaplaning. One of the drivers mentioned this, can't remember who.

 

[Mephistopheles]

As far as I know only one driver was whinging about the conditions and that was Massa all the other drivers were fine with it, whether or not he just said this to be the big "I am" I don't know..

 

[teabagyokel]

Mephistopheles - Words are cheap. I don't know if this data is available, but as far as I am aware, only McLaren were on wet tyres before the Safety Car came out. If a driver is telling the FIA that the race should be stopped due to wet conditions whilst on intermediate tyres, they need censuring. If the race is too dangerous to run, then it is most certainly too dangerous to run intermediates.

The Monday morning race directors have me quite annoyed, actually. The people who actually have to make these decisions were doing their utmost, and will have to live with the "What if?" questions. What they do not need are journalists, drivers and assorted others telling them what they should have done.

Yes, there must be a serious review of procedure, but it must be done by the FIA dispassionately and when in full possession of the facts. I don't care who was "screaming down the radio", and they absolutely should not be given a platform to make unhelpful statements borne out of anger.

EDIT: My avatar is NOT meant to imply any feelings on Race Control decisions, I hope it has not been interpreted as such.

 

[Incubus]

Mephistopheles -
Yes, there must be a serious review of procedure, but it must be done by the FIA dispassionately and when in full possession of the facts.QUOTE]

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The thing is, when it comes to track conditions in bad weather, what seems like the heavy reliance (mind you maybe not so much these days) by the race director on the feedback from drivers. And drivers will always relay the information that suits their position.

 

[teabagyokel]

I hope this is a huge wake-up call for anyone giving Race Control feedback based on their own self-interest rather than upon the actual conditions out on the track. They've all said that some things are more important, hopefully they'll act like that.

 

[Mephistopheles]

If I were Charlie Whiting then in the drivers meeting before Sochi I would tell them and the teams streight and that is you will slow down significantly under double yellows and if you don't you will be blacked flagged, the message needs hammering home I don't understand why they don't anyway because they can't be overtaken under yellows..

 

[Rutherford]

Well putting the blame with Bianchi is a bit to harsh in my eyes. Saying he was aquaplaning because he was driving to fast under double yellows is a bit rash, seeing that a Caterham spun off under the safety car.

It is harsh because we haven't got the data and the only ones who know are the FIA and the team.

It was raining and the team would have told him that there was a yellow flag section but do we know that he could see the yellow flags and knew the exact spot of Sutils crash, as long as he can't see the yellow flags there is no reason for him to lift as this would cause a dangerous situation for the following cars (Spa 1999).

 

[Mephistopheles]

I have noticed that some people have mentioned the green flag being waved at the scene of the incident, and those same people arguing that Bianchi could not have seen the double yellow flags, the fact is the green flag was being waved passed the incident and if Bianchi could not see the double yellow flags then how on Lady Gaga's ballsacks is he meant to have seen the solitary green flag which was farther away?

 

[The Artist.....]

However, some have suggested that Bianchi was travelling at 200kph through that section, whilst his team mate had been travelling at 160kph... Not sure where they got this data from....