Jules Bianchi Suffers Severe Head Injury

[Hawkmoon]

With the speed he was carrying there was no way Bianchi was going to walk away from that accident. The tractor undoubtedly made it worse but I don't think the tyres would have been enough to absorb such a huge impact.

[Robinho]

I find it difficult to understand with electronic measurement systems available (i.e digital rain gauges etc) and measurement of the track (roughness index etc) it was not possible to calculate whether it is safe to race or not.
Certainly if Massa was saying to stop the race 5 laps earlier - the race controller was certainly not listening to an important source of information -(an experienced driver on the track) and possibly negligent in elevating the level of risk for the drivers' safety by not stopping the race earlier.

Massa was screaming, but not concerned enough to pit to remove his worn inters and put on full wets. Both sutil and bianchi were on worn inters afaik. They were all trying to tiptoe to the end without pitting again or hoping that the race would be red flagged when there was a crash. Had they been on full wets I doubt either would have crashed in that manner.

[Robinho]

With the speed he was carrying there was no way Bianchi was going to walk away from that accident. The tractor undoubtedly made it worse but I don't think the tyres would have been enough to absorb such a huge impact.

True, he was on his way to a huge accident regardless, unfortunately made exponentially worse by the huge tractor, rather than tyre barriers

[Storm]

If not for the tractor we might be looking at Schumacher 99 or somewhat worse but the big hulk of metal (not absorbing any of the shock) is what has made this life threatening (exponentially worse indeed robinho)

[BDunnell]

You would think that with all of the technology in F1 it would be quite simple for race control to be able to push a button that sends a signal to each car's engine management system to limit power, taking the option to ignore flags out of the equation

That's the sort of thing I'm against - technology that takes elements of the skill of driving, and racing with, an F1 car away from the driver.

[SGWilko]

I disagree. It's an easily avoidable incident.

Someone mentioned canopies on the race thread, I actually don't see this as something a copy would have helped with. BUT there are two things which people have touched on.

1. Why was he going so quick in a yellow flag zone? If he wasn't so horrendously injured he should be getting a race ban. He needlessly endangered his life and the lives of the trackside workers.
2. Where was the safety car? Where was the full track yellow? By having a zone of yellows you still reward a driver for driving quickly through the yellow flags....

I'm sorry, but this is the typical motorsportforums F1 forum way of dealing with it..... ie it doesn't happen all of the time so it's termed as being a freak incident so do nothing and hope it doesn't happen again. It happened to Brundle before, once is too many times for this sort of thing, twice is just a joke. It's not going to kill the sport to have safety cars more often and be harder on drivers who are driving faster than they should be in these sorts of conditions, it might have already killed a driver to not be harsher though......

I think we need to take stock - how many times - this season alone - has a truck been on track recovering a stricken car(s)? The drivers are in control of their own destiny, double waved yellows, as stated in the rulebook, tell syou te be prepared to stop. In the wet, it takes longer to stop. The drivers were ALL going too fast at that point.

Had the truck not been reversing.....

Had he been going at a suitable speed given marshalls were on the track.....

We are VERY lucky no marshalls were killed - needlessly.....

And I am glad to see you understand that a canopy would have been as useful as the roll hoop in this accident - none.

[SGWilko]

Here's close up footage of the crash

http://youtu.be/ObadBsi1mlY

It's a miracle he's alive honestly. I so wish he pulls through this. His F1 career is over but we can only hope that he gets a chance at living life at least.

Interestingly, this shows that while the car does go under the truck, it is only just, and only because the truck is reversing. It actually looks like the truck slows the Marussia down a lot, the roll hoop taking all the force - which is considerable enough to deform it - saving the instant retardation the car may have suffered if it went directly into the barrier.

[Rollo]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report...ce=mostpopular
Williams performance chief Rob Smedley says it would be technically straightforward to introduce closed cockpits into Formula 1, should the sport decide to in the wake of Jules Bianchi's accident. Marussia F1 driver Bianchi suffered a serious head injury after crashing into a recovery vehicle in the closing stages of the Japanese Grand Prix.

The sport has repeatedly discussed introducing cockpit surrounds on cars, since Felipe Massa suffered his own serious head injury during qualifying for the 2009 Hungarian GP and Fernando Alonso had a fortunate escape at the start of the 2012 Belgian GP.
Formula 1's governing body the FIA has conducted experiments with cockpit canopies (pictured, below) and Smedley said it would be a simple process for the sport to introduce them.
- Autosport, 6th Oct 2014

What is it going to take eh? If drivers are paid many millions of dollarpounds, doesn't it make sense for teams to protect their assets?

[SGWilko]

If the accident Jules suffered ripped off the roll hoop, do we honestly think a canopy would have remained intact?

More to the point, can you imagine if, at a more controlled speed the car got wedged under the truck with a canopy, and the driver needed an urgent tracheostomy.....???

[MrJan]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report...ce=mostpopular
Williams performance chief Rob Smedley says it would be technically straightforward to introduce closed cockpits into Formula 1, should the sport decide to in the wake of Jules Bianchi's accident. Marussia F1 driver Bianchi suffered a serious head injury after crashing into a recovery vehicle in the closing stages of the Japanese Grand Prix.

Let's be honest, a canopy wouldn't have done much to limit the damage, just look at the way that the roll over bar and rear portion of the car got ripped apart. Canopies would help for flying debris but this incident was as a direct result of 3 things. 1. No SC. 2. Tractor on the wrong side of the fence. 3. Bianchi not properly slowing down as the signals were telling him.

As for Massa screaming, well we all know that he can be a bit of a jessie when things get a bit tricky. And if he was on inters then he pretty much has no argument.