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?

 

[sushifiesta]

Kenny Brack was travelling at 220mph before the crash and flew into a steel fence post, I can believe there was an incredibly high instantaneous g-force. The actual value of the g-force value isn't disputed and there have been several crashes with peaks above 100g that have been survived. The point is that the peak g-force by itself doesn't tell anywhere near the whole story.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Speaking to someone in the Pub over the weekend, how true I don't know, but Schuey is similar to Stephen Hawkin in regards to his ability to function in every day life.

Michael Schumacher has brain damage Stephen Hawking has motor neurone disease Michaels body is fit and well Stephen's body is not, Stephen's brain is fully functioning Michael's is not there is no similarity between the two conditions in fact they are polar opposites....

 

[soccerman17]

Wow Mephistopheles I'm impressed with how well thought out that argument was, and I completely agree!

Also regarding Kenny Brack he was actually able to race again after that as well, I think after only a year break.

 

[Mezzer]

I'm guessing the Kenny Brack g-force was peaking when the survival cell was spinning like a top, no?

 

[Mephistopheles]

If the person is at the centre of the spin he would be feeling no g force whatsoever.

 

[ATL11]

Mephistopheles

Michael Schumacher has brain damage Stephen Hawking has motor neurone disease Michaels body is fit and well Stephen's body is not, Stephen's brain is fully functioning Michael's is not there is no similarity between the two conditions in fact they are polar opposites....

It was a pub discussion and was his physical ability to deal with life, his outward appearance. Used the word similar too.

Scheuys body maybe fit and healthy, but was told he can't use it.

 

[FB]

Before and after on David Purely's LEC.

Ignoring the g forces involved how the hell wasn't he squished?

 

[Bill Boddy]

I'm glad to see that we've arrived at the 'man in the pub' situation. All will now become clear.

 

[sushifiesta]

I'm still not entirely sure why Bianchi's crash was so serious if there was no direct blow to his head. My presumption is that it's because the roll hoop is not a deformable crash structure so the impact between that and the crane stopped the car pretty much instantly, causing the extremely high g-forces we have heard about.

Kubica survived hitting a concrete wall at high speed with only minor issues but it was the nose of the car, which is a crash structure, that hit the wall. So if the nose, or maybe sidepods too, of Bianchi's car had hit the car first it would have been a big accident but I suspect he'd be walking around now, or at least smiling and talking. Incredibly unlucky really.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Have none of you watched the video. There is clearly a direct blow to the head, the entire cockpit passes tight under the concrete counter weight. I don't care what has been said about it being deceleration. I have eyes. It was a head impact.

Frame grabs below, don't click if you don't want to look.

Frame by frame

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

The official cause released by the family (and presumably the doctors) was a DAI.
I personally think he'd have been killed instantly if his head had struck a solid object.

(Edit) could the car lifting the recovery vehicle have actually prevented the head strike?

 

[F1Yorkshire]

If he had have hit the tractor with his head then we would have been looking at a fatal accident. The human body isn't designed to take that kind of impact and we would have probably ended up with decapitation. Sorry to be crude about the accident. The roll hoop designed the way it was has saved his life, it it was deformable then his head would have suffered severe visible injuries.

In any accident there are 3 collisions. The vehicle hitting an object, The person hitting the vehicle, usually the restraining belts and finally the internal organs hitting the skeleton.

With Bianchi it was the 3rd collision that has done the damage. As the vehicle became to a virtual standstill and due to the driver being so heavily strapped in, the greatest movement in this case was unfortunately Bianchi's brain moving around in his skull.

 

[Greenlantern101]

DAI can be caused by head impacts.

The images are clear enough, his cockpit passes tight under the counter weight, his head has nowhere to go, you can't duck in an F1 car. It has to be an impact. Perhaps a glancing blow to the upper area of the helmet. I agree it could not be a full face impact or he would not be here.

 

[Jen]

Does it really matter what happened? He is not as he was, for whatever reason, and speculation is pointless as it changes nothing.

 

[Greenlantern101]

It just annoys me that people are using media stories as fact. The only things we know are what we have seen with our own eyes in the video and what was said in the only official statement. Everything else is made up by the media with no official basis.

The statement.

“Jules remains in the intensive care unit of the Mie general medical centre in Yokkaichi. He has suffered a diffuse axonal injury and is in a critical but stable condition.
The medical professionals at the hospital are providing the very best treatment and care and we are grateful for everything they have done for Jules since his accident.
This is a very difficult time for our family, but the messages of support and affection for Jules from all over the world have been a source of great comfort to us. We would like to express our sincere appreciation.”

 

[sushifiesta]

There are images of his helmet Greenlantern101 and from what I saw it looked pretty much undamaged, although I think the picture was taken from the opposite side to the impact. I've watched the video and I don't think you can definitively say whether his head hit the crane or not, what is obvious is that the roll hoop hit the crane from the side and was completely destroyed, stopping the car pretty much instantly. The injuries would make more sense if there had been a direct impact, however, and if so that's some incredible helmet technology to have kept him alive with, as far as we know, no damage to his face or skull.

F1Yorkshire I disagree about the roll hoop, it's function is to prevent the drivers head from hitting the ground in the event the car flips, not to stop the car in a controlled way in the event of a "normal" crash. If his head didn't hit the crane he would have been much better off if the roll hoop wasn't there and he continued through and hit the tyre wall instead (or at least had a front impact with something else). If his head did hit the crane then it doesn't make any difference

Jen The specifics of what happened makes no difference to Bianchi but it could make a huge difference to the next unlucky person who has a similar accident... or in preventing such an incident from happening again.

EDIT: I hadn't noticed you'd attached pictures Greenlantern101. They look bad but when you watch the video it looks like the front of the car has passed the crane before the impact. It's pretty marginal whether or not his head was hit directly. In my opinion the point of impact is probably just (only just) behind him... and if it wasn't it looks like it would have been a direct blow rather than a glance.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Just seen this photo. The roll hoop looks like it is sheared off maybe an inch below the top of his helmet.
The area in front of the cock pit is clearly damage as the truck rubbed along it.

In the second photo above in my earlier post it looks like the car twists towards the camera, away from the truck.

Maybe he did miss the truck, or just a glancing blow to the side of his helmet.

If you draw an imaginary line from his broken roll hoop to the top of the nose, then his head is in the way, yet the helmet looks untouched on the side we can see.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

The recovery vehicle lifted a good 18 inches into the air. It looks like that was due to the roll hoop hitting it which must've been pulled back and then sheared.

 

[sushifiesta]

On a completely different note - considering the nature of the damage it's incredible there wasn't a fire, which would have worsened Bianchi's situation even further.

 

[Greenlantern101]

It was heavy rain remember I guess that would help cool the exhausts and brakes making it less likely for leaked fuel to flash up.