World mourns Bianchi’s death

> The world of Formula One is coming together to mourn young French driver who died late Friday from injuries sustained in a Grand Prix crash in 2014.

FORMULA ONE yesterday was reflecting on the loss of a friend and talent in Jules Bianchi (pix) after the talented French driver died late Friday, aged 25, from injuries sustained in a crash last year.

“Jules was a shining talent. He was destined for great things in our sport; success he so richly deserved,” Bianchi’s team principal at his Manor Marussia team said in a statement.

“He was also a magnificent human being, making a lasting impression on countless people all over the world. They recognised, as did we, that at the same time as being a fiercely motivated racer, he was also an extremely warm, humble and intensely likeable person, who lit up our garage and our lives.”

The tributes which continue to flow in for Bianchi have been numerous and heart-felt, while recognising that Formula One has been robbed of a highly skilled driver.

“No words can describe what his family and the sport have lost,” his former teammate Max Chilton tweeted. “All I can say it was a pleasure knowing & racing you.”

At the Monaco Grand Prix in 2014, Bianchi scored the first and only points earned by Marussia in several years of trying. He moved his largely uncompetitive car into ninth place at the race to finally get on the scoreboard.

Bianchi had progressed to Formula One through karting and impressive performances at the lower levels of the sport. He was part of the Ferrari young drivers programme and had impressed in practice sessions when loaned out to Force India.

“This boy was born with us, and we thought of him as our driver of the future,” former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo was quoted as saying by the BBC.

“If – as I think we will have to – we line up with three cars next year, we thought of him for the third car and he would have been perfect for the coming years.”

Just months after scoring in Monaco tragedy struck at Suzuka, in the Japanese Grand Prix in October, when Bianchi skidded off the soaking track and collided with a recovery vehicle which was in the process of removing a Sauber that had crashed a lap earlier at the same spot.

The FIA motorsport world governing body found the crash was caused by several factors, including Bianchi not slowing down sufficiently under double yellow flags.

However, even elite drivers make errors on occasion and Bianchi’s fate is a reminder of just how dangerous motorsport can be.

“My strong thoughts go to Jules Bianchi’s family! Hope the lessons we learned will stop more tragedies like these from happening!” Bruno Senna, nephew of former world champion Aryton Senna, tweeted.

Until Bianchi’s death, Senna remained the last fatality suffered in a Grand Prix crash. He died racing at Immola in 1994, one day after the Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger died in qualifying.

The Bianchi family are not strangers to grieving lost drivers. In 1969 Lucien Bianchi died in a crash in practice for the Le Mans 24hour race, where he was defending champion.

After Senna’s death, Formula One brought in a number of new regulations to make racing safer. The sport is now unrecognisable, in safety terms, from the dangerous days of the 1960s and 1970s which saw several drivers lose their lives.

The FIA has already reacted by changing various race times to ensure drivers do not compete in fading light and a virtual safety car has been introduced to immediately bring down car speeds in the event of an accident.

But that will offer little consolation to the Bianchi family as they mourn the loss of a son and brother. – dpa