F1/Bianchi

[CharleyFarley]

Hoping its not the worst news!!!!
Car off/damaged tyre wall......
Bianchi came off moments later.....looking like he hit a JCB!!! Race red flagged/abandoned!!
Only news 'driver unresponsive!!!
Best of wishes.......


"Gas it w###a".........

[CharleyFarley]

In wet conditions, the 25-year-old's incident, which led to the race being called off, happened shortly after the rain intensified.
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, who finished second to team-mate Lewis Hamilton, said: "My thoughts are with my colleague. They have given us some information and it seems very, very serious."
Hamilton said he had heard Bianchi was "severely injured".


"Gas it w###a".........

[CharleyFarley]

Marussia driver Jules Bianchi has suffered a "severe" head injury in a crash at the Japanese Grand Prix.
The FIA said the Frenchman is in surgery and will be moved to intensive care afterwards.
Bianchi, 25, was unconscious as he was taken to hospital following the incident which brought the rain-affected race to an early conclusion.
He lost control at the same spot on the Suzuka circuit where recovery vehicles were attending a previous crash.



"Gas it w###a".........

[Sid Squid]

Bianchi spun off and hit the tractor that was there to recover Sutil's car that had had the same crash one lap earlier. Serious head injury apparently.
Lauda's comments are hard to disagree with - motor racing is dangerous.

[SvNewbie]

It's really sad. But, much the same as riding a motorbike, it wouldn't be so much fun if there wasn't an element of danger.

I hope the FIA don't do their usual crack down on whatever they end up blaming it on. I suspect speeds under yellow flag will come under scrutiny and / or deploying the safety car for any recovery vehicle on track.

[littleoldman2]

It's really sad. But, much the same as riding a motorbike, it wouldn't be so much fun if there wasn't an element of danger.

More sad news
Former Formula One driver Andrea de Cesaris has died following a motorbike crash in Italy.
http://www.vitalf1.com/article.asp?a=2608

[punyXpress]

Have often been filled with dread when a rescue vehicle has encroached on the circuit. Should NEVER be allowed to happen, with the sole exception of safety car and medical.
Particular example is at the pit entrance in Montreal, just at the end of a very fast straight where all sorts of 'derring-do' take place just yards from the 'wreckers' whose chassis is about level with drivers' heads.

[SvNewbie]

I get where you are coming from, however there is only so safe you can make a sport involving travelling around at 200mph with nothing but a helmet between you and the outside world.

At street circuits especially, having to get the safety car out for each incident would make the sport tedious to watch.

I don't want to be too critical of Bianchi, given his health is still very much unknown, but had he walked away from the accident and a marshal was injured I suspect he'd be very much under fire for driving too quickly under waved yellows.

[punyXpress]

200mph with nothing but a helmet between you and the outside world.



There's a hell of a lot more than just that between them and the scene of the accident - unlike us, although not many of us do 200mph.

[smiley125]

I've just seen the footage of the crash.. shot on a personal camera... They started waving green flags whilst the recovery vehicle and the wreck was still on the track side far too soon in my eyes..

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[Luckypants]

I've just seen the footage of the crash.. shot on a personal camera... They started waving green flags whilst the recovery vehicle and the wreck was still on the track side far too soon in my eyes.I've watched the same footage and wondered why they were waving green flags when the recovery tractor was still trackside.

[SvNewbie]

Just found the video:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/11145265/Jules-Bianchi-crash-shocking-video-emerges-of-Japanese-Grand-Prix-accident.html

What he is doing with the green flag there is a mystery to me. I doubt the section of track had been declared safe by race control. Unless that was supposed to indicate the end of the yellow flag section, the real danger was in the braking zone.

[Red Herring]

..... Unless that was supposed to indicate the end of the yellow flag section, the real danger was in the braking zone.

This, green flags are shown at the marshall post immediately after the incident, which technically that post was.

[NTECUK]

And you are not supposed to get back up to race speed until you pass the flag yes ??

[SvNewbie]

In much better news:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/f1-hero-michael-schumacher-can-4395046

[pookie]

Hope Jules and Schumi get well and up to speed soon..

I feel the situation was compounded by the directive of the Bernie/ Charlie/ FIA to reduce the interference of stewards on races. See the strewn car on the home straight in hungary I think without a safety car ( the one hamilton flew past)

In addition did we all forget they introduced a ban on radio communications last Grand prix in the middle of a season only to back track slightly.I cant believe any team / driver can change adapt their approach to racing without a consequence in the short time frame they were given. Maybe helping the driver when stay on the road would be more a priority in the case of adverse weather.

The show that F1 so proudly promotes cant have it both ways where drivers are on the edge or 100% safe and sanitised.

[rowdy]

The accident involved bianchi's car submarining under the back of the jcb.
Surely in a multi million pound sport full of top designers someone could come up with a large rubber safety ring surrounding the jcb's like a massive bumper car, to stop a car from being able to submarine, or to lessen the impact.

[Red Herring]

Surely in a multi million pound sport full of top drivers we should be able to trust them to slow down and not crash when not actually racing...?

[maviczap]

Maybe in a multimillon pound sport the race officials could send out a signal to change the engine management settings to slow drivers down automatically?

The teams can change engine settings remotely now can't they?

[NTECUK]

Maybe in a multimillon pound sport the race officials could send out a signal to change the engine management settings to slow drivers down automatically?

The teams can change engine settings remotely now can't they?

So that argument can be used to say " As we don't think that the drivers can actually drive to the rules, every time they have an incursion we can shut off the full power.
Dangerous situation.

[Red Herring]

I'm sure if we used all the technology available to us we could make it virtually impossible for drivers to crash, however that will then leave millions of people with the problem of looking for something else to watch on a Sunday afternoon.....

[rowdy]

Surely in a multi million pound sport full of top drivers we should be able to trust them to slow down and not crash when not actually racing...?

True up to a point, in normal dry clear conditions this is usually the case. However, in the rain drivers have spray to contend with. At the beginning of the race Hamilton radio contacted his team asking them to relay a message to rosberg in front not to do anything silly while they were behind the safety car, because he couldn't see anything in front of him, and could barely make out his tail light.
I have not looked at the pitstop data so do not know when Bianchi last pitted for fresh rubber, but we know he was still on inters.
When Button pitted to change inters for a fresh set of inters, the guys from perelli checked them and came to the conclusion that they had plenty of life left in them, apparently mclaren put them back in the tyre warmers in case they were needed again.
It is possible this information was relayed to the other teams, and possible that Bianchi had been on his inters for a long time. Button is notoriously smooth so his tyres could have been in a lot better shape than many other drivers tyres.
So, if Bianchi did have spray to contend with, if his inters were worn badly, he would only of had to hit some standing water and it wouldn't matter if he had slowed there would be a great chance of aqua planing.
There will always be human error at some stage, I just think that if they have to bring diggers on to the track there must be something that can be done to make them a little safer if things do go wrong.

[NTECUK]

So what you gonna wrap the poor marshal up in. Even if it was the Michelin man. Being hit from the car it's likely gonna be curtains for them.

[rowdy]

Some aspects just can't be made any safer, those that can be should.

Have looked at pitstop data, Bianchi last pitted on lap 24. The only drivers on older rubber were chilton and vergne.

Edit: at that point in time, others had gone longer stints but pitted as or before conditions deteriorated.

[Red Herring]

Seems like the FIA think like some of you..... talking about fitting cars with a means of slowing them down when yellow flags are out, and fitting "skirts" to recovery vehicles!

Another example of modern ideology, one individual gets it wrong so everybody else has to be dumbed down to their level.

[Trev B]

Surely the speed on the approach to an accident like this could be dropped down using the speed limiter they use in the pit lanes,may have to use a different colour flag or some sort of device to make drivers aware of activating it to avoid rear end shunts,but as it's the same speed for all without using the pace car!!!

[NTECUK]

How about disqualifying the cars that don't slow under the caution flags.
They would soon wise up to it then.

[Red Herring]

You would have to make it work on a percentage drop in speed rather than a set speed in order to allow for all the different circumstances where it would be needed.

Every F1 driver knows when they have slowed down enough to be 100% sure they are not going to crash off the circuit, which is what they should be doing under a waved yellow. Double waved yellows, as we had in this case, mean slow down enough to be able to stop, and Jules clearly hadn't done that, so this is a case of driver error. There are already several ways the FIA have of knowing they are not slowing down enough and of punishing them accordingly. All that is needed is for the FIA to enforce the current rules, not invent new ways of making drivers comply with them.

[littleoldman2]

Couldn't agree more RH.

The drivers in F1 are acknowledged to to be amongst the very best in the world. They therefore should not be in a situation were they are out of control when instructed to slow down and be prepared to stop. If I were to be unkind I could say that it's selfish of such highly skilled drivers to place the marshals in danger by driving in such a fashion.

[rowdy]

I agree RH, but on the same token I also think the likes of Wayne Rooney, paid hundreds of thousands a week, should put the ball in the back of the net every chance he gets.

Thing is, years ago an accident like this would happen you would see one or two drivers stop, get out and try and help. Nowadays, every tenth of a second matters, and drivers will admit that if a yellow flag is raised, they will only lift as little as possible in order to lose as little time as possible.

[kaivalagi]

I've not bothered reading through all the posts but it was a freak accident and doesn't warrant any more restrictions and control tech....like NTEC has said, just enforce rules after the facts in future to make people behave within the rules...

I think if they restrict the sport further and put in yet more rules / regs / controls I will give up on it all together, as it is I don't watch it all the time anymore as it's lost a lot of the magic that I remember.....in a life full of rules it's nice to watch some simple sport with one aim, to win going around a circuit as quick as you can....thank fook for BSB and MotoGP, atleast that is less afflicted by "officials" messing with stuff every other frigging race!

[flymo]

Its possible that slowing down actually reduced the level of grip available under lower down force ironically.

[flymo]

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/17581/9512625/martin-brundle-reflects-on-the-lessons-to-be-learnt-from-jules-bianchis-crash