RIP Jules Bianchi

[Jonny Come Lately]

As a big F1 fan I was very saddened to hear on Saturday morning about the death of former Formula One driver Jules Bianchi from the injuries he sustained in last year's Japanese Grand Prix. He suffered a severe head injury in a high speed crash with a recovery vehicle in the dire conditions of weather and light, and after spending nine months in an induced coma finally lost his battle on 17th July. He was 25 years old.

It's very difficult to come to terms with this as he is the first driver to be suffered fatal injuries in a Formula One grand prix since the great Ayrton Senna on that awful weekend at Imola in 1994. Motor racing is dangerous and in some ways it is impressive that 20 years passed without this occurring, but it is tragic when someone this young with a potentially long and successful life ahead of them (he was widely tipped to be a future Ferrari driver, with the famous Italian team having long taken an interest in his development).

I personally thought he was a very talented young driver and his excellent 9th placed finish in the Marussia (consistently one of the two slowest cars) in last season's Monaco race secured the team its first and only points finish was a clear sign of his potential. He had also performed well in qualifying, getting the car in higher positions than expected. It is a such a tragedy.

An obituary from the UK:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obit...-obituary.html

Tributes from fellow drivers (who respected him highly):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/33578997

Too fast to live, too young to die, bye bye Jules.

I've included a photo of him driving the Marussia car in his all too short prime in my signature with lyrics from the chorus of My Man, which I felt were especially poignant. RIP.

[Freypower]

Agreed. We watched the race & were stunned when we found out how serious the situation was. RIP.

[Jonny Come Lately]

Just read that his funeral was held today in his hometown of Nice. The pallbearers included four times world champion Sebastian Vettel and his countryman Romain Grosjean.

Further tributes will be paid at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where will be a minute's silence will be observed in his honour. The FIA have 'retired' his car number from 2014 - number 17.

This is the first driver death I have witnessed in F1 (I was born a few months after Imola 1994 and started watching in 2007) although I have been well aware of tragedies in other motorsport series, such as the death of Moto GP rider Marco Simoncelli and of the British driver Dan Wheldon in the Indycar series.

I must say I was surprised and delighted about the choice of song for his funeral. I had no idea he was a fan of Hotel California or the Eagles.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33606853

[Freypower]

My husband rang me at work to tell me about Senna.

[jms18222]

Oh my Lord this site was made for me. I too am a huge F1 fan. Kimi Raikkonen is my man. It is a pity I will never see him race. COTA is out of the question this year. I doubt he will be at Ferrari next season.

So sad about Jules. He would have been driving for Ferrari in 2016. That race never should have been ran. It was too wet & it was getting way too late for it to of been run but Bernie had to get it in & head the circus off to Sochi. My son said he had a feeling someone was going to die right before the race started. I still do not understand why they waved a green flag when the crane was still inside the track area.

#NeverForgetJules17

[Jonny Come Lately]

I totally agree about the race conditions in Japan. Martin Brundle (the long time F1 co-commentator in the UK) had a very similar accident in similarly treacherous conditions at Suzuka 20 years earlier although he was fortunate and narrowly missed the tractor, and was therefore especially wary of the dangers. In a sadly ironic twist I think he mentioned this accident in their pre-race coverage. Also, it wasn't the first time Bernie and TV pressures have caused problems by running a race too late either, the 2009 Malaysian GP was moved to a later start time but this was a big mistake as heavy rain was practically inevitable at that time of day meaning the race had to be stopped early as it was too wet and too dark to restart. Luckily on this occasion there were no serious injuries.

I do feel for Adrian Sutil, who had simply lost control of his car in the same way Bianchi did a lap later and he is blameless in the tragedy. It was just unfortunate that it was his car that the marshals were trying to recover.

On the morning of the crash Bianchi had signed a contract to drive this year's Sauber, a car which although certainly not a front runner is superior to the Marussia he had in 2013-14 and he would have scored some points for sure. He was more talented than either of the two current Sauber drivers IMO.

I quite like Kimi Raikkonen myself. His return to Ferrari has been a bit of a disappointment although I think victory would have been his in Bahrain had the race continued just a lap longer. I thought he did an excellent job in the Lotus to take a couple of wins in his time there. His speed in a race car is undeniable - IIRC he has the second highest number of fastest laps in F1 history. He can be a bit frustrating at times though, I remember quite a few races in 2008 where he seemed to coast for most of the race before waking up near the end in time to set the fastest lap, but too late to get a big result. I agree it seems unlikely he'll retain his seat for next season although he does seem to get on well with Vettel, which might help his cause. I reckon fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas will get the drive, although if Raikkonen does go I'd prefer to see Nico Hulkenberg in the second Ferrari. He has shown some real promise at times (leading much of the 2012 Brazilian GP on merit, for instance) and I think he is long overdue a top car.

[jms18222]

Ferrari has that way of using their drivers & tossing them aside. Guess they forgot who their last WDC was.
Bottas is the perfect McLaren driver. Hulk would be a great fit for Ferrari but I think he goes over to the LeMans series. I am interested to see who Haas hires. Will be super disappointed if there isn't an American driver.
If Sauber did sign Jules then they had 5 drivers for 2 seats. No wonder they are struggling.