Remembering Jules Bianchi and his legacy, 10 years on

Jules Bianchi suffered an accident, from which he would never regain consciousness, 10 years ago today, during the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.

The Ferrari junior, who was being lined up as a future star for the Scuderia, was racing for the now-defunct Marussia team when he crashed in the late stages of the 2014 race at Suzuka.

Jules Bianchi was one of F1’s rising stars

Jules Bianchi tragically passed away on July 17, 2015, in a Nice hospital, having never regained consciousness following a devastating crash on October 5th, 2014.

Bianchi was racing for Marussia, a team no longer on the grid, when he lost control of his car in treacherously wet and gloomy conditions at Suzuka.

At a point on the track where a recovery vehicle was already removing Adrian Sutil’s crashed Sauber, Bianchi collided with the digger. The impact with the recovery vehicle resulted in him suffering a diffuse axonal injury, a traumatic brain injury.

Bianchi passed away nine months later, having never regained consciousness.

In an alternative, happier timeline, Bianchi may well have gone on to become one of Formula 1’s top stars and, to this day, may have been a leading light of the sport.

He was very much considered one of Formula 1’s rising stars, having made his debut with Marussia in 2013.

He had been part of the Ferrari Driver Academy since late 2009, showing promise akin to that of his godson, Charles Leclerc, whose career trajectory has been extremely similar.

Bianchi frequently tested with the Ferrari F1 team, including a mid-season test at Silverstone in 2014 when Kimi Raikkonen was sidelined due to an earlier crash.

That season, Bianchi delivered remarkable performances in his Marussia, notably at the Monaco Grand Prix, where he finished eighth in a true underdog story. Although a penalty dropped him to ninth, those two points secured Marussia’s only points in their six years in the sport, allowing them to outpace Caterham in the Constructors’ Championship.

The loss of Bianchi was felt deeply by his family, friends, and the entire Formula 1 community, as he represented a bright future in the sport.

His passing has resulted in an enduring legacy in F1, with the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) being introduced following the FIA’s extensive investigation into Bianchi’s accident. With the Frenchman navigating a double-waved yellow flag at the point he lost control, a mandatory and uniform slower pace may have made all the difference – resulting in the safety measure that has become a regular feature during races since.

In Bianchi’s time, the drivers ostensibly dropped their pace to obey the yellow flags but, with differing interpretations on how much to slow by, it led to inconsistency and, ultimately, an unsafe environment.

While the Halo device may not have made the crucial difference in preventing Bianchi from suffering his catastrophic head injuries, his crash proved one of the impetuses for the FIA to accelerate its research into cockpit protection methods and, in 2018, the Halo device was made mandatory for Formula 1.

While initially met with consternation and disagreement from fans, and even some drivers, its value has been proven on umpteen occasions since. In Formula 1, Romain Grosjean is still here following his terrifying Bahrain crash in 2020 as the Halo sliced through the Armco barrier to open a gap for Grosjean’s head.

Zhou Guanyu survived his horrible 2022 British Grand Prix crash due to the Halo giving his head a buffer above the ground as his car skated across the tarmac upside down, while Lewis Hamilton was saved from serious injury at Monza in 2021 when Max Verstappen’s Red Bull’s rear wheel landed on Hamilton’s Halo following a clash between the pair.

Outside of F1, Alex Peroni, Roy Nissany, Tadasuke Makino, Sarah Moore and Beitske Visser are all here and unhurt due to the protection afforded to them by the Halo.

But while Bianchi’s legacy may include this very positive addition to top-level motorsport categories, and plenty of drivers now owe life and limb to it, it doesn’t bring the late Jules Bianchi back for everyone who loved him.

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On track, had he joined Ferrari in 2016 or 2017, he might have been a contender for the championship, given the team’s competitiveness at the time, and his promising career was cut short in a heartbreaking manner on that fateful day at Suzuka – the most recent (and hopefully, last) F1 driver to have died as a result of a crash during a Grand Prix.

The FIA retired Bianchi’s number 17 in the wake of his passing, although the number did make an appearance earlier this year as Leclerc paid tribute to his friend and relative by wearing Bianchi’s helmet design for the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix – the 10th anniversary, by event, of that fateful day.

“It’s a very special place and whenever I get here I have Jules in my mind,” Leclerc said.

“I obviously think about Jules very often, because he was the person that helped me to get here.

“Back in 2010 already, he had spoken to Nicholas [Todt], my manager, in order for me to be supported to get to Formula 1 and he’s been the game-changer in my career.

“Before that, we were always extremely, extremely close and both of our families are still always very close.

“So it’s a very special place to be here.

“Of course, as always, he’s always in my heart and it’s going to be very important to do well this weekend.

“Once you put on the helmet, obviously I’ve got to think about whatever is going on on the track, but obviously it was a very important sign for me to do here.

“I had spoken with the family. We are always in contact and we always speak because it’s basically the same family.

“We’ve always been extremely close and they were so, so happy that I had asked to use the helmet, so I’m really happy.

“Obviously, Jules is still there and needs to be remembered. If I’m here today in Formula 1, it’s thanks to him.”

The Bianchi family established the Association Jules Bianchi

Today, Bianchi’s family runs the Association Jules Bianchi, which aims to fundraise and help raise awareness for patients suffering traumatic brain injuries, and works closely with the hospital where Bianchi was treated in a bid to improve facilities and equipment.

Speaking in a recent interview with the F1 Feeder Series website, Bianchi’s father Philippe – whose mother passed away this week – spoke about how the family tries to focus on the positives they can take from such a sad event that overshadows their lives a decade on.

“It is our only way to make Jules exist today,” he said.

“When Jules came back from Japan in the coma, he was hospitalised in Nice in the L’Archet hospital, in the brain injury department. Everyone in the department was just wonderful with him. When Jules passed away, we realised there were so many things to do in this hospital.

“Jules was famous, loved, handsome, nice … the luck we had in our misfortune is that Jules was publicised. I meet too many people mourning after the loss of their child who don’t have our luck.

“We always have to see the positive side. It is quite paradoxical, I have to say. For us, the positive side is to be able to make Jules live through our actions with the association. Jules is still active. That’s the magic side of everything.”

Referring to a karting marathon, at which Leclerc was present in September, which has become an annual event organised by the Association, Bianchi said: “There was so much love, so many strong moments. People have been sharing their passion. We made them dream. We made them happy. Of course, there were some stars from racing or from other worlds, but there were so many parents sharing something with their child in their team.

“All these people were all united around Jules. It was a true moment of happiness and sharing. It’s thanks to all these people, to Charles, to Richard Mille, that we are able to live these moments.”

“We gathered €50,000 for the association on one single weekend. It directly went for a new device for the L’Archet hospital to help to wash bedridden patients in optimal comfort. Before that, we had bought a driving simulator to reacclimatise people to driving.

“It would have been Jules’s will: to do these good deeds, to support young drivers, to spread love and joy.”

Rest in peace, Jules.

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