Jules Bianchi 1989 - 2015

This is possibly one of the most difficult and emotional things I've ever written, but it is only fitting that I do an entry on Jules Bianchi, who tragically lost his life last Friday after a nine month battle with serve head injuries sustained at the Japanese GP in October last year. Tributes have been flooding in all weekend from drivers past and present to express their grief at the loss of a friend, colleague and a true racing talent. It had been 21 years since Formula 1 had a death due to a racing accident, and this tragedy has reopened the huge debate about safety in the sport. There is no doubt that the sport is as safe today as it ever has been, but this accident has highlighted that there will always be an element of danger in F1. This entry is will have a look at his too short racing career and what could have been for the young Frenchman.

Jules' family name oozes motorsport history, with his uncle Lucien winning the Le Man 24 Hours race in 1968, and also making 17 GP starts. Further back in the Bianchi family tree, his Grandfather Mauro tasted success in GT racing. Jules' career began by racing karts at age 5 and enjoyed much success. He made the step up to racing cars in 2007, where he won the Formula Renault 2.0 French series on his first attempt, scoring five wins in the process. He made a smooth transition to Formula 3 the following year, finishing 3rd overall in the F3 Euroseries, where he won two rounds, plus the prominent Masters race for ART. He remained at ART in 2009 and scored eight victories to take a comfortable championship victory. The stand out event for Jules that year would be that Ferrari had been keeping a close eye on him and he was eventually signed up to their F1 young driver program.

2010 saw Bianchi step up again, this time to GP2, Formula 1's main feeder series. This is a series where the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Nico Romberg and Romain Grosjean, to name a few, have graduated and became successful Formula 1 drivers. Bianchi raced in GP2 Asia during the winter of 2009 to prepare for the main series. He finished 3rd overall failing to take a victory, but 3rd overall in your rookie season where the competition is so fierce is nothing to be ashamed of. A characteristic of Bianchi was seemingly his loyalty and honesty, and this was seen in 2011 where is started his 4th year with ART. He finished second in the shortened four round GP2 Asia championship, which was won by Romain Grosjean. Grosjean also beat Jules to the title in the main series, which saw him given another chance in F1 with the Lotus team. Bianchi ended up finishing 3rd overall again after Luca Filippi had a brilliant second half to the season. Bianchi's season yielded one victory at Silverstone and constant points finishes, but ultimately he never recovered from a poor start to the year which saw him crash out in Spain and Monaco.    

Despite being beaten, Ferrari still supported the young Frenchman, giving him further F1 experience in 2012 along with Force India, who gave him 9 free practise sessions over the course of the season. On top of this, he was competing in the Formula Renault 3.5 championship with Tech 1 Racing. It was a year of frustration for Bianchi from the first race right down to the last. He lost his second place debut result and 18 valuable points due to a technical infringement. Jules went into the final double header of the season leading the championship, but fell behind rival Robin Frijns in the first race. In the final round, Bianchi showed his talent and race craft by pulling off a brilliant move on Frijns, only to be taken out by Frijns a few corners later. Unfortunately for Bianchi, the stewards punishment wasn't enough to hand him the title from Frijns. 

2013 would see Bianchi finally make the step up into F1. Again, frustrations would hamper Bianchi's start as he was in the running to join Paul di Resta at Force India after testing for them during the winter. However, during the final pre-season test, the team announced that Adrian Sutil would be the second driver. This left Bianchi without a drive until Luiz Razia's sponsorship package fell through, opening up a drive with the team that Bianchi took up. It wasn't the car that would show his true ability, but that didn't stop him showing glimpses of how good he was. In just his second drive for the team in Malaysia, he finished 13th, which eventually meant the team would finish 10th in the constructors championship, and be given vital financial rewards. Throughout the year, he constantly out performed team mate Max Chilton and a true star was clear for everyone to see. Not surprisingly, the team retained Jules for 2014 and he was also performing tests for Ferrari, who had become Marussia's engine supplier. Undoubtedly, the highlight of his short F1 career was the 9th place finish in Monaco last year, giving Marussia there only points in F1. Jules' performance was brilliant that day; yes he was helped by retirements, but that can't take away the fact that he was so quick on the day. His season was going as well as he could have hoped after the points in Monaco, until that fateful day at the Japanese GP. Adrian Sutil's Sauber had crashed heavily, and a recovery crane was on the scene to recover the vehicle. This would be the crane that eventually took Jules' life. Bianchi lost control of his Marussia and collided with the crane. Sadly for every F1 fan, this would be the last time we would see this talented driver behind the wheel of an F1 car.    

Jules was destined for fantastic things in F1 but now unfortunately, the world will never see his true potential. He showed just how good he was in a poor, underpowered car, and he also showed stunning pace when testing for Ferrari in 2014 at Silverstone in place of Kimi Raikkonen. His points for Marussia in Monaco last year are the sole reason the team now known as Manor are racing this season. The GPDA will now be looking into new safety measures to ensure that the sport keeps on being as safe as physically possible, and becoming safer still. The only way I can really end this is #RIPJules #CiaoJules

Giedo van der Garde vs Sauber - F1's Money Issue Raised Again

Last week, Giedo van der Garde issued a statement revealing that he and the Sauber team had reached a settlement over his disputed seat. Van der Garde believed that he had a contract with Sauber for this season, only for the team to sign up Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericson instead. This led to the farcical court case that proceeded over the Australian GP weekend which ruled that van der Garde should race in Australia, only for Nasr and Ericson to race, not van der Garde.  Having looked at both parties statements over the situation, I think it really speaks volumes about the money problems that the smaller teams in the sport encounter.

Last season saw both Caterham and Marussia go into administration and miss the final three races of the season (Caterham making it into the final race in Abu Dhabi through crowd funding). Problems were also well documented at Force India, Lotus and Sauber, with each team calling for a rethink in prize money distribution to help the smaller teams cope. However this was rejected, with the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull claiming they shouldn’t have to give up their money. Here is the first problem: The teams at the front of the grid seem to control how money is distributed in F1, and it is all wrong in my opinion. For the sake of the future of the sport, this should be completely overhauled and examined in great detail to ensure small teams can enter F1, stay there and become competitive in the sport. We have seen the three new teams that entered the sport in 2010, HRT, Caterham and Marussia all drop off the grid due to financial problems (although Marussia has been reformed as Manor), and with HASS F1 set to join the grid next season, I don’t want to see another new team be forced out due to money problems. Now according to van der Garde, it was his sponsorship money that got Sauber through the remainder of last season, showing how financially crippled the team were. If a team has to survive off the money of a test and reserve driver, surely the whole F1 world should look at this and say that it isn’t right. Teams are talking about louder engine notes and bigger wheels when what I think they should be talking about is helping smaller teams on the grid survive.

The whole affair has been a shambles for the sport, van der Garde himself and the Sauber team. I understand from van der Garde’s point of view that he has a contract and this should be honoured, I mean what’s the point of the paper it’s written on if it isn’t honoured? However, is one driver bigger than the whole team? No. Had van der Garde went ahead and drove for the team, it could have meant the loss of another team in F1 and with that over 300 jobs, which I don’t believe for one second should be happening. I doubt that we will see van der Garde in F1 again because of this incident, unless another cash strapped team need funding to survive. As for the team, this incident will damage their own reputation and leave a few questions for other drivers if they happen to come along with some money wanting a drive. I’ve mentioned earlier that the sport needs to have a proper look at itself and sort costs out to ensure this farcical debacle doesn’t occur again.