The life of Jules Bianchi and a damn accident that broke dreams

Jules Bianchi was a Formula 1 driver loved by all. And of course, not only within Formula 1. He was a smiling, kind, tough and very talented young man on the track, a driver who shone in a generation full of quality and who everyone knew would do something great in the top category. .

Linked to Ferrari, the future of the historic Scuderia de Maranello belonged to him. It is difficult to interpret an outcome that did not happen in the end, but the Cavallino had a vintage driver in Jules Bianchi. And he had it in mind. A dream that was left halfway.

On October 5 at Suzuka, during the Japanese Grand Prix, Jules Bianchi suffered a terrible and unfortunate accident that shrank the heart of the motorsport world when he collided with a crane that was assisting another car (driven by Adrian Sutil) that had been left out. racing on the outside of turn 7.

Nine months later, on July 17, 2015, Jules Bianchi died in Nice. Formula 1 met to say goodbye at his funeral, which was right there, in the city where he was born. The FIA decided to retire Bianchi’s number, 17, but his memory will never be retired.

With this review we want to remember his life in motorsports, his career, victories and successes in the categories he went through four years later. Forever Jules .

• That Jules Bianchi would be a pilot was more or less written before he was born. His great-uncle Lucien Bianchi (in the photo with the Cooper T86B-BRM) was a Formula 1 driver. He entered 17 races and even achieved a podium finish.

 

• His grandfather, Mauro Bianchi, was a World Endurance Champion in GT. And the aforementioned Lucien won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Ford GT40 in 1968.
• Born in Nice, Jules Bianchi was the son of Philippe Bianchi and Christine Bianchi. He had a brother, Tom Bianchi, and also a sister, Mélanie.
• His first season in ‘formulas’ came in 2007. He entered and won the French Formula Renault 2.0 that year. The next, in 2008, would go to European Formula 3. The pieces of his career in motorsport were already on the board.
• Driving for ART Grand Prix on a Dallara chassis and a Mercedes engine, Bianchi won the Formula 3 Zolder Masters in 2008. He showed a solid performance in the wet.
• In that victory in the Masters F3 he was accompanied on the podium by an also very young Nico Hulkenberg, who would also later come to Formula 1, and Jon Lancaster. He would finish third in the Euroseries with two wins, two poles and seven podiums. Good cover letter in the category. That good season was completed by participating in Macao. It was ninth.

 

• In 2009 he continued in the Euroseries, and his teammate (he continued in ART) was the Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas. Also Esteban Gutiérrez and Adrien Tambay.
• With the Dallara F308 Mercedes of ART Grand Prix, he added no less than nine wins, six pole positions and more than ten (12) podium finishes. Jules Bianchi was crowned with these statistics. The Frenchman was the champion of the F3 Euroseries in 2009.
• He repeated it again in Macao at the end of the year, and climbed back to tenth place where he finished.
• A brilliant year, 2009, which would still have a culmination: a test as a young driver in December with the Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1.

 

• Maranello red suited him. Bianchi belonged to the Ferrari Driver Academy and, although it is not known what would have happened, he was called to be the future of the Cavallino.
• Nicolas Todt was a key player in Bianchi’s career, and was with him in those tests with Ferrari. He was his manager and also that of several other pilots. To give an example, that of Felipe Massa.
• Under the tutelage of ART, in 2010 he left the Eurosries and went on to compete in GP2. There he shared a team with Sam Bird.
• Bianchi contested the first round of the GP2 Asia Series and added, in his debut in Abu Dhabi, the pole position that later became his first podium, being third.
• Bianchi climbed several times on the podium and scored three pole positions that year, but he ended his first year in GP2 with a bittersweet taste of not having achieved any victory.
• Bianchi finished on the overall podium of the European Championship. The riders who prevailed were the champion Pastor Maldonado and the Mexican Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez. The photo below belongs to the Silverstone test, which was won by the Venezuelan Maldonado and where, together with Bianchi and Pastor, the Spanish Dani Clos also climbed on the podium.

 

• He returned to contest the tests of young drivers that Formula 1 left in Abu Dhabi. Again at the controls of the Ferrari and leaving good impressions.
• The person in charge of testing the EF01, the first electric racing car, was Jules Bianchi. It was the first idea of the FIA Formula E championship that was born in 2014.
• As a member of the Ferrari family, he participated in various events with the Scuderia. He was a test driver in 2011 and pilot of the quarry of young stars linked to Ferrari. For example, in the Natale Bimbi Event, dressed as Santa Claus, handing out Christmas gifts to children together with the two drivers of the team that year, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.
• In addition to that Christmas event, he also participated in Wroooom 2011. He skied in Madonna di Campiglio as one more part of the Scuderia.

 

• For 2011 he stayed in GP2 with ART. His partner stopped being Sam Bird and was Esteban Gutiérrez (who would come to F1 the same year as him). Great Britain was the only place he managed to win that season. ART had taken a step back in terms of performance. Even so, he finished that season third in the championship, very close to second (one point) but far from the champion, a certain Romain Grosjean.
• That year he was closer than ever to Ferrari. He worked with them in Maranello and was with the team in Grand Prix. For the third year he got into the car in the Abu Dhabi young drivers test at the end of the season.
• The year 2012 was one of his busiest. He changed GP2 to move to Formula Renault 3.5, where he raced with Tech 1 Racing. That year the championship had as much or more quality than GP2, and there Bianchi achieved three wins that allowed him to be second. He could have been champion if it weren’t for the fact that, in the last test, Robin Frinjs took the title after a controversial maneuver with Bianchi himself.
• That year, on loan from Ferrari, he had been a substitute driver for the Force India team, whose regular drivers were Paul di Resta and a Nico Hulkenberg with whom he had shared a generation in lower single-seater categories.
• Stuck in his new role, he was in the races but not the Ferrari garage but the Force India garage.
• Part of the F1 pre-season tests were done at the wheel of the Force India, and his activity on the track would not stop there.
• It premiered in the official session of the F1 World Championship in the free practice sessions of the Chinese GP in Shanghai. He also got into the car for practice in Barcelona, the European GP, the British GP, Monza, Korea and Abu Dhabi. He added many kilometers and valuable experience. He left a very good image on the team.
• In Abu Dhabi he contested the young driver tests with Ferrari but also with Force India. And he also participated in the Ferrari World Finals.

 

• For the 2013 season, Bianchi was able to start at Force India. Nico Hulkenberg was one of the drivers, and the other was between Bianchi and Adrian Sutil, who would end up taking the wheel of the VJM06.
• Marussia was the team that allowed him to play his first season as a starting driver. His partner was Max Chilton, also a Formula 1 debutant.
• That same season also debuted in Formula 1 Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Gutiérrez, Max Chilton and Giedo van der Garde.
• In F1 he met old acquaintances like Daniel Ricciardo. Also of his generation were Valtteri Bottas, Romain Grosjean or Nico Hulkenberg.
• Australia was the first race of the 2013 F1 season and Bianchi already showed his talent there. He finished 15th, beating his teammate and the Caterhams. Saturday’s qualifying was very good.
• He would also finish ahead of his teammate and the two Caterhams in Malaysia. There he stayed just two tenths of the time that Valtteri Bottas had achieved with the Williams. That Sunday was 13th.
• His first abandonment would come in May, at the Monaco GP. After an accident on lap 58, he damaged his Marussia and although he was not damaged, it was the first race he did not complete.
• Bianchi was 19th in his first year in motorsport’s top flight, ahead of his Marussia teammate and the two Caterhams. The impression he left on the paddock and the fans was a good one, and the team kept him going for 2014.
• His character made him a rider appreciated by the rest of his teammates on the grid. Fernando Alonso was one of those who was always closest to him.

 

• 2014 did not start in the best possible way for Marussia and a Jules Bianchi who abandoned the first two races.
• In Bahrain, Bianchi was 16th, and that was his best result in the first five grands prix. Sixth was Monaco, and the Frenchman, running almost at home, started 21st having received a five-position penalty for replacing the gearbox.
• With a brilliant performance in the race knowing how to avoid the problems that affected other drivers, Jules Bianchi would end up putting Marussia in the points, in eighth position no less.
• Although he finished 8th, his position changed after the race. He received two penalties, the first for starting from an incorrect position, and the second for serving that penalty under the Safety Car period, something that the regulations do not allow. Five seconds were imposed on his final time.
• He ended up being 9th, adding two points that were his first in Formula 1 and the first for Marussia. Unfortunately they would be the only ones for the pilot and the team. Those were two points that made it possible for Marussia to overtake Sauber and Caterham in the 2014 team championship standings. That was a huge financial boost.
• A Marussia that never again had options to finish in the top ten and score points. At the next grand prix, Bianchi had a touch on the first lap and retired early.
• Those who saw Jules Bianchi play soccer assure that he was not bad with the ball. He participated in the events in which the pilots dressed as soccer players and showed good manners.
• And so the season passed until the Japanese Grand Prix arrived. It was October 2014, and Formula 1 and Bianchi reached a weekend that no one would have wanted to see.
• That was the 15th test of the year, in the first days of October. The race was going normally, but on lap 40 Adrián Sutil went out with the Sauber in the rain. At the time, Bianchi was 17th.
• The Safety Car appeared on the asphalt to give time for Sutil’s Sauber to be removed. However, between turns 7 and 8, Bianchi went off the rails, and was unable to control his Marussia. He suffered from aquaplaning, which made it impossible for the Frenchman to take command of the car. It was heading very fast towards the tow truck that was removing the Sauber.
• Couldn’t have had worse luck. His MR03 came to rest and crashed terribly against the back of the crane, hitting the pilot’s head. Bianchi, unconscious, was taken out of the car and immediately taken to the hospital in Yokkaichi, the closest town with a hospital. There he underwent emergency surgery and spent a month and a half there until he was taken to the University Hospital of his native Nice.
• Manor’s box (Bianchi’s former team, Marussia) became a makeshift altar, and no one stopped paying tribute to him. His accident went very deep in the world of Formula 1.
• In a press conference, the FIA gave more information on the circumstances surrounding Jules Bianchi’s tragic accident. The Monday after what happened, FIA had been the one who reported that Jules was “stable but very critical”, with diffuse axonal damage.
• Messages of support for Bianchi were not long in coming, and the motto chosen by F1 was in French, ‘Tous avec Jules’ (everyone with Jules). Formula 1 drivers and teams wore stickers with that phrase and the #ForzaJules that fans used on social networks.
• The Marussia team decided, as a sign of respect for its injured driver, to dispute the following race, the Russian GP, with a single car.
• The only Marussia driver in Russia, Max Chilton, Bianchi’s teammate, sent forces to the Frenchman along with the rest of the team.
• The memory of the fatal accident suffered by Jules Bianchi in Suzuka left the grid touched. All drivers were hit hard at the Russian test
• As in many other cases, nobody knows what would have happened. But, if he is still alive, it is not strange to imagine that Jules Bianchi would be a Ferrari driver. That was the dream that was half way to come true. The Scuderia also paid tribute to its young promise.
• On July 17, after fighting for his life for nine long months, Jules Bianchi died in a Nice hospital. #CiaoJules was the farewell message from all the fans. Many continue to tweet daily and many have that hashtag or #JB17 in their Twitter handles.
• The next race would be the Hungarian Grand Prix, and it was a tough test for all the drivers and the whole world of Formula 1. Before the traffic lights went out, the drivers, hugging each other, formed a circle within which their helmets were next to Bianchi’s. It was a very nice minute of silence and where it was difficult not to get emotional.
• Jules’ family, led by father Philippe, was present at the Hungarian Grand Prix circuit, the Hungaroring. They were given the love and support that F1 wanted to give Jules. One of the most affected was Fernando Alonso, who got along very well with Jules.
• Months after the fatal accident, a report from the FIA pointed to a certain responsibility of Jules in the crash in Suzuka, for not having slowed down enough during the Safety Car period. His family was outraged by this and, with Philippe in the lead, they undertook legal action against the FIA and the Formula 1 Group in 2016, one year after his death.
• Although Jules Bianchi passed away in July 2015, Daniel Ricciardo did not win again until October 2016, in Malaysia. After that victory, the Australian said that he dedicated it to the Frenchman, of whom he had been a rival in lower categories.
• Bianchi is Bianchi and Leclerc is Leclerc, and it is not our intention to call one “the new” another. But it is inevitable to think of Jules when we look at Charles. Also young from the Ferrari Academy, the Monegasque is another highly talented driver who has a future winner with the Cavallino as his goal. They were friends, Bianchi considered him his brother, and Leclerc referred to him as his godfather, his mentor. The comparisons or references of one and the other will continue as Charles’s career progresses.
• Since he is not alive, Jules Bianchi “lives in our hearts”. His father struggles to keep his memory alive.
• Never forgotten, Jules. Always remembered (1989-2015).