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?
 
Unable to get on Internet as normal with being on holiday. when i heard on the news few mornings ago i was deeply saddened to hear off Bianchi passing but had somewhat braced myself for it with news update from his father last week he truly was a great talent taken from us too soon wouldve driven for ferrari maybe 2016 but he will live on thru Manor team & monaco 2014 when he drove amazingly for 9th & I was genuinely happier with his 9th than Lewis next win. I can't imagine what a hammer blow this to the family Graham lowdon & manor

But I said at the time I blame jean todt & japanese gp organisers that storm was forecasted 8 days beforehand & if the race shouldve been a 11am local time start as was rumoured yes wouldve still rained but miles better visibility & light but jean todt said he was unable to change the time now if fia president is unable to change the race time in safety grounds then something is seriously wrong
 
I really don't understand why someone has to be blamed for what happened. Yes, it would have been better if the tractor wasn't on the track. Yes, it would have been better if the race had been started earlier, but given that weather forecasters can rarely tell what is going to happen in the next 8 minutes looking at something predicting what the weather might me in 8 days seems a little excessive to me. Oh and yes, it would have been better if Bianchi hadn't been driving too fast for the weather conditions and lost control of his car.

It was a very unfortunate combination of circumstances and, above all, an accident. As long as something is learned from what happened and the chances of it happening again in the future are reduced then that is a positive. Perhaps not much of a positive for Bianchi's family but he and they knew the risks when he became a racing driver.

Celebrate a life well lived, even if only for too short a period.
 
Motor racing is dangerous - that's what it says on the back of the ticket. The very fact of this being the first fatality since Senna, shows the progress that has been made - but not every eventuality can be conceived of or avoided. At some point in the future there will, I daresay, be a serious incident involving interlocking wheels, or a car becoming airborne, and we will wonder why the wheels weren't enclosed; why the cockpit wasn't shrouded. Such seems to be the nature of the sport - tragically, however high the odds may become, one afternoon a young man's number comes up. RIP Jules - a light that burned briefly but brightly.
 
Many current and past F1 drivers have attended Bianchi's funeral. Grosjean and Vettel were among the pallbearers. Very emotional tribute by Jules' family ...

Gone too soon
 
FB I think it was more the FIA's official report and the organisers stance towards the accident that has angered people

It was a freak accident but lessons must be learned so this does not happen to anyone
 
What shitty news to come back to from holidays. Very sad, but I think judging by news updates it is for the best. I don't think he would of had any quality of life had he woken up.

Rest in peace Jules.
 
Whats sad about this story is that this is not the first time the Bianchi family have had motorsport related tragedy in their family. In 1969 Jules's great uncle Lucien Bianchi was killed during testing for Le Mans when he spun his Alfa Romeo into a telegraph poll. Lucien Bianchi also drove in 19 F1 Grand Prixs. His best result? Monaco.
 
that tribute pre race to jules bianchi yesterday was 1 of the most touching things ive seen in f1 so powerful great to see everyone united as 1 & it amazing testament to all drivers that they could focused to drive an GP after that because i wouldve been an emotionally mental mess. i was welling up just watching it

f1 circle.jpg
 
Jules Bianchi: Late F1 driver's family sue over 'avoidable' death

They claim errors were made in the "planning, timing, organisation and conduct of the race", which they argue "took place in dangerous conditions during the typhoon season in Japan"."Jules Bianchi's death was avoidable,"

Im with them but i would go after Jean Todt because in my opinion he's majority to blame & I still dont forgive him for that because we shouldve raced at 11am that day because we all knew that storm was going to happen a week in advance. I found it ridiculous & shocking that most powerful man in motorsport couldn't persuade Japanese promoters on safety grounds to move the GP 3/4hrs earlier because yes we would've had Same rain but miles better visibility. If they didn't agree you say it's 10am/11am or nothing you explain why the race was postponed
 
I'd take a slightly different view ; its money grabbing but aiming for as many rich targets as possible.

Jules was in control he made a mistake. For me the only other realistically avoidable factor is the circuit owners letting a recovery crane onto the trackside (but strangely they are not named in this legal action).

20-20 hindsight is great, the lessons learned will possibly save others or reduce injury, but no amount of money will bring Jules back....
 
It's sad remaining so bitter and living with what ifs. They can't seem to accept Jules had any role in this which unfortunately he did.

If the blame was laid solely at Jules then I can understand this but quite significant changes have been made so I don't think any further settlement is needed. One would hope it's the principle of admitting culpability and saying 'sorry we let him down' rather than money.

Why they are suing Marrussia I don't know.
 
Hamberg

Did Marussia do enough to tell Jules to slow down ? I don;t know

I would certainly put responsibility on both Bernie and the race organisers. They were given a window to start the race and the organisers opted for a later start time because they wanted more crowds into the circuit before the race starts. This was despite being given a weather warning that was predicted to be the worst of the weather conditions

This is negligence
 
Congratulations, I thought you were engaged before, same bloke I hope ;). Welcome back here and to the Prem league!

Agree about Bianchi, although there was legal action against Williams for Senna's death.
 
What's done is done. Nothing will bring Jules back.

Motor racing is dangerous, always will be, Jules knew that and he made the decision to pursue the career he loved.

I think the issue for the family is the way the FIA reacted to the incident and blamed Jules. Yes ,he played some part in the tragedy, but so did the FIA. The biggie for me is not bringing the race forward when they knew there was going to be atrocious weather. That was worse than anything Jules did. If the FIA had handled it differently, been more sympathetic, less eager to point the finger and protect themselves, I doubt very much the family would be bringing this court action. They want to clear their sons name.
 
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