Jules Bianchi Suffers Severe Head Injury

[Franky]

If we'd remove the tractor from the scenario, there's still a big chance it could had gone nearly as horribly as it did. Bianchi was pretty much heading towards the gap between the fences.

[BDunnell]

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.

Even then, they would be little help against heavy items of flying debris.

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.

Exactly. He strikes me as the very epitome of the modern driver unable to cope without constant pit-to-car communication. It's understandable that he should be cautious about safety, but in one sense this renders him the last person whose view should be heeded.

[Bezza]

Horrible, horrible crash which I think on the whole could have been avoided. But on another hand, elements where in there which are impossible to control.

The weather. It changed very quickly, and the cars were still on Intermediate tyres even at that point. Perhaps, Pirelli need to manufacture an Inter that isn't "quite as good" which means cars need to switch to full Wets sooner, therefore allowing more grip, less aquaplaning - albeit slower lap times. We only see Wets now when they are behind the safety car on sat on the Grid, such is the range of the Inters.

I said when the crash happened, that the simple fact is, under poor weather conditions like that - tractors should only be allowed on track in the event of a safety car. I think in dry conditions, the chance of an incident like happened is practically impossible. But even then, a safety car would make sense and simply neutralize the race but we can all carry on after a couple of laps anyway. This happens in NASCAR and oval racing. In F1, they are seemingly worried about upsetting whoever is leading by wiping out his lead with a Safety Car. We saw it at Germany with Sutil (ironically) having spun on the last corner, just off the racing line. A SC should have been deployed there.

Above all else though, we need to ensure we don't over-react to this crash. There are always things that can be improved. Tractors, and deployment of Safety Car are two things already. What we don't want is to go too far, which I can unfortunately see happening - and see all wet races cancelled or limited, or cars slowed down, or anything else like that.

F1 is dangerous and bad accidents will happen. Take away danger totally and you take away the whole essence of F1.

[Bagwan]

I hope Jules is ok .

There are a lot of things to consider here .

Firstly , when Sutil aquaplaned off , his car was in the middle of the zone that was waved yellow , and his car came to rest at the end of the zone .
The puddle that put him into the barriers was , it can be argued , as much a danger as the car in bad position .

The yellow zone that was in place started about half-way through that corner , so Bianchi would have been at racing speed to that point , being asked to slow down in a turn .

As the car was being lifted at the end of the zone , Jules could see the green beyond , and I have read that the telemetry shows he was actually on the gas when he lost it in that same puddle Sutil hit .

I would suggest that the zones be changed , so that the entire corner is shown yellow .

From the cockpit , the driver may not have much time to glance over to see what the actual danger is , especially when he is in dying light conditions , in a rain storm .
But , he should always expect the worst , and be capable off stopping .

Again , I hope Jules is ok .
Both he and Adrian were going too fast to negotiate the corner .
Adrian was under greens , so his off is understandable .

But , Jules was under yellows , so we need to fully understand why he was going at such a speed to have him off at the same place .

And , something needs to change .




And , as for the crane , itself , I wondered if , given that Sutil's car was immediately beside the barrier , could it have been deployed from behind it ? Would the vehicle have had enough boom length to get the car off track without entering inside ?

[BDunnell]

Horrible, horrible crash which I think on the whole could have been avoided. But on another hand, elements where in there which are impossible to control.

The weather. It changed very quickly, and the cars were still on Intermediate tyres even at that point. Perhaps, Pirelli need to manufacture an Inter that isn't "quite as good" which means cars need to switch to full Wets sooner, therefore allowing more grip, less aquaplaning - albeit slower lap times. We only see Wets now when they are behind the safety car on sat on the Grid, such is the range of the Inters.

I said when the crash happened, that the simple fact is, under poor weather conditions like that - tractors should only be allowed on track in the event of a safety car. I think in dry conditions, the chance of an incident like happened is practically impossible. But even then, a safety car would make sense and simply neutralize the race but we can all carry on after a couple of laps anyway. This happens in NASCAR and oval racing. In F1, they are seemingly worried about upsetting whoever is leading by wiping out his lead with a Safety Car. We saw it at Germany with Sutil (ironically) having spun on the last corner, just off the racing line. A SC should have been deployed there.

Above all else though, we need to ensure we don't over-react to this crash. There are always things that can be improved. Tractors, and deployment of Safety Car are two things already. What we don't want is to go too far, which I can unfortunately see happening - and see all wet races cancelled or limited, or cars slowed down, or anything else like that.

F1 is dangerous and bad accidents will happen. Take away danger totally and you take away the whole essence of F1.

Agree completely with all of that.

[BDunnell]

But , Jules was under yellows , so we need to fully understand why he was going at such a speed to have him off at the same place .

I fear that may, eventually, prove difficult. Naturally I'd like to be proved wrong.

[SGWilko]

Horrible, horrible crash which I think on the whole could have been avoided. But on another hand, elements where in there which are impossible to control.

The weather. It changed very quickly, and the cars were still on Intermediate tyres even at that point. Perhaps, Pirelli need to manufacture an Inter that isn't "quite as good" which means cars need to switch to full Wets sooner, therefore allowing more grip, less aquaplaning - albeit slower lap times. We only see Wets now when they are behind the safety car on sat on the Grid, such is the range of the Inters.

I said when the crash happened, that the simple fact is, under poor weather conditions like that - tractors should only be allowed on track in the event of a safety car. I think in dry conditions, the chance of an incident like happened is practically impossible. But even then, a safety car would make sense and simply neutralize the race but we can all carry on after a couple of laps anyway. This happens in NASCAR and oval racing. In F1, they are seemingly worried about upsetting whoever is leading by wiping out his lead with a Safety Car. We saw it at Germany with Sutil (ironically) having spun on the last corner, just off the racing line. A SC should have been deployed there.

Above all else though, we need to ensure we don't over-react to this crash. There are always things that can be improved. Tractors, and deployment of Safety Car are two things already. What we don't want is to go too far, which I can unfortunately see happening - and see all wet races cancelled or limited, or cars slowed down, or anything else like that.

F1 is dangerous and bad accidents will happen. Take away danger totally and you take away the whole essence of F1.

Lets just go back to inters, wets and monsoon tyres, covering the whole scale of damp to soaked?

[SGWilko]

I fear that may, eventually, prove difficult. Naturally I'd like to be proved wrong.

Lets hope then that this trauma is more akin to Vendlinger in Monaco, than a Surtees or Senna type accident, and Jules has a high chance of survival post swelling?

[Bagwan]

To refresh my memory of the details I mentioned in my last post , I went back to the Motorsports.com site , and reviewed the layout of the marshalling posts and zones in the corner we saw the accident .

I was struck by the picture of Adrian , standing back , watching a fellow driver being worked on by the medics , unconscious in the cockpit , surrounded by debris from a terrible impact .

We saw the stone faces of those who hadn't been anywhere close to the scene at the time when we watched the podium sequence of events .
And , we all know how we each felt when we first saw the video .

But , Adrian was right there , and I feel for him right now , and hope he's ok , too .

[AndyL]

A number of people have commented about Bianchi not slowing for the yellow flags. Let's not forget that slowing down is no guarantee you won't crash, if you hit an unexpected puddle; just ask Marcus Ericsson about that. So the fact that he crashed is not necessarily proof that he failed to heed the yellow flags.