Ten years ago, Jules Bianchi’s crash shocked the F1 world

Exactly ten years ago, on October 5, 2014, on the 43rd lap of the Japanese Grand Prix, the car of Jules Bianchi, a Marussia team driver, slid across the wet asphalt and flew at high speed to the right side of the road in the Dunlop -bend…

At that moment there was a tractor there that was evacuating Adrian Sutil’s Sauber, which had gone off the track a lap earlier. The out-of-control collision of Bianchi’s car with heavy equipment was inevitable and led to tragic consequences: Formula 1 lost one of the most talented young drivers, who was already preparing to move to Ferrari, the parents of Jules lost their son, Charles Leclerc lost his best friend…

The accident at the Suzuka circuit forever changed the further course of Formula 1 history, and journalists from Gazzetta dello Sport decided on the day of the tenth anniversary of the dramatic incident to recall how safety standards in motorsport have improved since then changed.

Immediately after the accident, which occurred as a result of an extremely unfortunate and complex set of circumstances, the FIA ​​​​and Formula 1 launched a detailed investigation, while work continued to improve safety standards.

First, a measure was introduced called the Virtual Safety Car (“Virtual Safety Car” or VSC) – a special mode in which a real safety car does not enter the track, but the racers must immediately slow down to a certain limit and maintain their speed. positions on the track, as well as intervals between machines.

Tests of VSC mode were already carried out during the last three stages of that season and in 2015 it was officially introduced. Since then, this mode has been used in cases where an accident or the appearance of foreign objects on the track, for example car debris, does not require neutralization of the race by a safety car, let alone stopping it with red flags.

VSC can be seen as a kind of compromise, which allows you to partly maintain the dynamics of the race.

In 2015, tests began on the driver’s frontal head protection system, the feasibility of whose introduction was discussed much earlier, even after the Felipe Massa incident, which took place in Hungary in 2009.

We can say that the Brazilian racer was lucky then: he was able to recover from his traumatic brain injury and return to work. In the case of Bianchi’s accident, everything was the other way around; the nature of the injuries suffered turned out to be fatal and the drugs were powerless, so the life of the French racer, who was in a coma for several months, was interrupted. on July 17, 2015.

For three years, the FIA ​​conducted intensive testing on prototypes of various systems designed to protect drivers from such injuries, with some designs rejected after testing, and eventually a system called Halo was introduced in 2018.

It seemed to many then that the titanium arch of a special shape, firmly attached to the cockpit of the car, distorted the usual aesthetics of racing, but soon everyone got used to the fact that this element became mandatory not only in Formula 1, but also also in the youth formulas from F4 to F2 and in the electric Formula E.

Now we can say unequivocally that the Halo system has saved many riders from injuries of varying severity and even saved more than one life. Suffice it to recall the words of Roman Grosjean, spoken after a terrible accident during the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix: “At first I was against Halo, but without Halo I wouldn’t be saying these words now, that’s for sure… .”

The VSC mode and the introduction of Halo, as well as other similar systems (IndyCar uses an alternative solution called Aeroscreen) are just the most notable solutions aimed at improving safety standards that have appeared in global motorsports over the past decade.

But work in this area continues, every year the GPDA association, which can be considered a union of drivers, the FIA ​​​​and Formula 1 management discuss these problems and try to find optimal solutions. In addition, extremely dangerous situations still occur, because, for example, a new tragedy could have occurred at the same Japanese circuit in Suzuka, when in 2022, under conditions of extremely poor visibility, a tractor again appeared on the track around Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari.

Fortunately, everything ended well afterwards, but Pierre Gasly, who was driving very close to that tractor, said this: “8 years ago we already lost Jules Bianca, a great guy, and on the same circuit and in the same conditions. How is it even possible that we saw another tractor on the highway today? If I had lost control of my car, I could have died.”

But another example can be given, also dating from 2022, when a multi-car collapse occurred at the start of the British Grand Prix and Guanyu Zhou’s Alfa Romeo overturned and went over in the first corner of Silverstone the track gate flew. What saved the Chinese racer, who escaped only with bruises, was the physical strength of the safety systems of modern Formula 1 cars, including Halo.

Finally, we can quote what Christine Bianchi, Jules’ mother, said after Grosjean’s accident in Bahrain: “The Halo system was introduced after my son’s accident and today it saved Romain Grosjean’s life. This is great, I’m glad Roman is doing well.’

There is no doubt that the tragedy of ten years ago became a difficult lesson for the entire world of motorsport, and the necessary conclusions were drawn from it, such as after the accident at Imola that killed Ayrton Senna in 1994. Racing has become safer, but of course motorsport was and remains a risky activity, for many people who not only love speed, but also really brave people. That also applied to Jules Bianchi.