Jules Bianchi In Critical Condition F1

[Solitaire]

Poor young man, this accident was avoidable but such is motor racing. My son's out sprint racing today and I won't know how it's gone until he either returns later or does not

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2781081/BREAKING-NEWS-Formula-1-star-seriously-injured-crashing-tractor-race-hit-heavy-rain.html

[Errol]

It's a dangerous business. They get paid a lot to compensate.

[Solitaire]

They do indeed, but very sad when it's so obviously avoidable - a previous accident on an outside bend, heavy recovery machinery in a direct line of the run-off and treacherous weather

[Errol]

Very unlucky, obviously. Hopefully he will have a full recovery.

[Fully Detached]

I don't think it was so easily avoidable. It's one of those freak things that was always a possibility; you have the choice of whether to remove stricken cars and run the risk of someone hitting the recovery vehicle, or to leave the stricken cars and run the risk of someone hitting another F1 car. Arguably another F1 car is at a similar height but who knows, in that case we could have had two seriously injured drivers instead of one.

I don't know whether Sutil's accident should have warranted a safety car, and having seen so many cars spin off under safety car conditions anyway, it isn't certain that the accident would have been avoided if they had deployed it. The yellow flags were out, at least.

I think that after 20 years of safety improvements and no fatalities, it is easy to think that this should have been preventable, but all accidents are avoidable with the benefit of hindsight, not so much before.

Either way, it was a dreadful accident and a very bad day, and my thoughts are with him and his family and the Marrussia team.

[Guest eight]

I don't think it was so easily avoidable. It's one of those freak things that was always a possibility; you have the choice of whether to remove stricken cars and run the risk of someone hitting the recovery vehicle, or to leave the stricken cars and run the risk of someone hitting another F1 car. Arguably another F1 car is at a similar height but who knows, in that case we could have had two seriously injured drivers instead of one.

I don't know whether Sutil's accident should have warranted a safety car, and having seen so many cars spin off under safety car conditions anyway, it isn't certain that the accident would have been avoided if they had deployed it. The yellow flags were out, at least.

I think that after 20 years of safety improvements and no fatalities, it is easy to think that this should have been preventable, but all accidents are avoidable with the benefit of hindsight, not so much before.

Either way, it was a dreadful accident and a very bad day, and my thoughts are with him and his family and the Marrussia team.

Yeah, wouldn't add much to that. The alternative is to go down the US route and throw a full course yellow over every tiny incident - although ironically they protect stricken cars by parking the safety vehicles in front of them.

Frankly I'd convinced myself that Bianchi was dead - I felt Ted Kravitz was trying to intimate that he had heard as much - so actually the current news is marginally positive as far as I'm concerned.

[Fully Detached]

Yes, I was pretty well convinced of the same, and from the tone of most of the Sky team, I think they all were as well. It made for uncomfortable, and I'm a little ashamed to admit, oddly compelling viewing. I guess that's just human nature.

[Guest eight]

Hope Bianchi is ok. From the BBC coverage it's hard to tell what actually happened. I assume he either hit the airborne Sauber or the JCB-thingy that was moving it. Safety is superb in F1 these days, people walk away from heavy crashes, so this is a rare event. I'd imagine there'll be more calls to introduce a canopy if he was hit in the head as this is the area the driver is most vulnerable.

There are a few photos around the 'net. Alas it looks like the car went nose first under the rear of the crane, which was at about cockpit height. Horrible echos of the Maria de Villota accident unfortunately.

[Bloo Loo]

gotta have a crash now and again to make the sport in any way interesting.

[Fully Detached]

gotta have a crash now and again to make the sport in any way interesting.

That is really a matter of opinion. I have the same level of interest in football.

[sPinwheel]

gotta have a crash now and again to make the sport in any way interesting.

Nope.

[Bruce Banner]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/29499545

Marussia driver Jules Bianchi is out of surgery and breathing on his own after suffering a severe head injury in a crash at the Japanese Grand Prix.

[Fully Detached]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/29499545

I know practically nothing about head injuries, but the fact that he is breathing unaided sounds quite positive to me, no?

[Bruce Banner]

I know practically nothing about head injuries, but the fact that he is breathing unaided sounds quite positive to me, no?

From what little I know, yes, it is very positive.

[Bloo Loo]

That is really a matter of opinion. I have the same level of interest in football.

football is worse...all spitting and wussing.

[Bruce Banner]

http://formerf1doc.wordpress.com/

If indeed Jules is out of the OR, and if indeed he has been extubated and is breathing spontaneously by himself, then what is significant (in the absence of other specific medical information) is that this indicates how confident his surgeons and intensivists are that his neurological status is sufficiently stable to allow him that “luxury”. That would be really superb news.

[council dweller]

Should have worn a helmet......well that`s what people said to me after I got broadsided by a car.

I`m sure he`ll get good treatment in Japan.

[mentalfloss]

http://formerf1doc.wordpress.com/

Not meaning to be a miserable ******* but breathing unaided? That's just proof that the part of the brain that manages that isn't mush. I wouldn't be surprised if Schumacher was doing the same. I hope that the young man pulls through. I'm amazed that people are saying that they couldn't have foreseen this. It has pretty much happened before. Heavy machinery without protection eventually leads to this. Its just time and numbers.

[Riedquat]

Not meaning to be a miserable ******* but breathing unaided? That's just proof that the part of the brain that manages that isn't mush. I wouldn't be surprised if Schumacher was doing the same. I hope that the young man pulls through. I'm amazed that people are saying that they couldn't have foreseen this. It has pretty much happened before. Heavy machinery without protection eventually leads to this. Its just time and numbers.

And that part of the brain working at all is surely a good sign.

"Couldn't have foreseen" doesn't mean completely ignoring the risk of a freak accident. The exact circumstances were very, very unfortunate and not something that would reasonably be mitigated against. Unfortunately sh1t happens and there are times when you have to accept that or stop doing anything.

[The Masked Tulip]

I was amazed that the race went ahead. Prior to the race various commentators were commenting on the terrible conditions re the typhoon.

In the hour leading up to the start it crossed my mind that if it was in the US - with all the legal and financial rammifications of something going tragically wrong - that perhaps they would have cancelled the race. I recall an Indy 500 race that was cancelled prior to the start due to heavy rain and the TV showed images of an empty track being rained on for a few hours.

I hope this man makes a miraculous recovery. I would not read anything into him breathing unaided.

[mentalfloss]

And that part of the brain working at all is surely a good sign."Couldn't have foreseen" doesn't mean completely ignoring the risk of a freak accident. The exact circumstances were very, very unfortunate and not something that would reasonably be mitigated against. Unfortunately sh1t happens and there are times when you have to accept that or stop doing anything.

Fair challenge but disagree somewhat. First I'll have to clarify my position. I've been watching and enjoying F1 since the early 80's. In that time the sport has been made immeasurably safer. That additional safety has come at a price especially in terms of the sanitisation of tracks. There used to be a wall for example just after the tunnel in Monaco. It nearly killed a couple of people and I think Sergio Perez was the one who hit it last leading to its removal. The introduction of HANS, the legislation of safety measures into car design, Sid Watkins (now sadly passed) meticulous approach to provision of on track medical care. All these things have led to an intrinsically unsafe sport being a reasonable pursuit rather than the virtual death wish of the 60's and 70's when a couple of drivers would die pretty much each and every season.

I strongly believe that people should be alllowed to make their own decisions re. The risks they are willing to take. Races used to take place in pretty much all conditions. Now full wet tyres are pretty much relegated to the role of track drying devices behind the safety car. Drivers (as evidenced by Massa) are expecting race control to manage risk for them. As Lauda famously did in Hunt's championship winning year if it is too risky, the driver can return to the pits and stop. Is it possible that the fact that racing in the wet is now a rarity a factor in this accident?

Where I simply don't agree is the "freak accident" characterisation. Pretty much the most likely place for a car to crash is where one has previously. Oil on the track used to cause much of this but it has always been highly evident in wet conditions. I'm pretty sure there have been fatalities where crashed cars have subsequently been hit by another crashing car. I fear that there are mixed priorities at play when it comes to car recovery. Partly a desire to ensure driver safety, but there's also a commercial / showbusiness element. The desire to clear an accident quickly appears to me to lead to inappropriate means by which to do so. With all the added safety it appears utterly incongruous to me that a pretty much unmodified JCB type vehicle is deployed within the racing environment. Even under double waved yellows the speeds involved make collision with such a vehicle highly dangerous as yesterdays horrible events show.

No doubt there'll be a full investigation and F1 will evolve and carry on.I do wonder in a society that has become very risk adverse / litigious whether the days of wet racing are finished and we'll see American style cessations when the heavens open? Personally I hope not. Rain sorts the good from the great in F1.

[Fully Detached]

Not meaning to be a miserable ******* but breathing unaided? That's just proof that the part of the brain that manages that isn't mush. I wouldn't be surprised if Schumacher was doing the same. I hope that the young man pulls through. I'm amazed that people are saying that they couldn't have foreseen this. It has pretty much happened before. Heavy machinery without protection eventually leads to this. Its just time and numbers.

Unfortunately it seems that this was a case of the media getting the wrong end of the stick, and apparently he is in a "very critical" condition and is not able to breathe unaided.

[Guest eight]

Also Andrea de Cesaris - a permanent fixture of my Formula 1 loving youth - has died in a motorcycle accident.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/29501069

[Fully Detached]

I was amazed that the race went ahead. Prior to the race various commentators were commenting on the terrible conditions re the typhoon.

In the hour leading up to the start it crossed my mind that if it was in the US - with all the legal and financial rammifications of something going tragically wrong - that perhaps they would have cancelled the race. I recall an Indy 500 race that was cancelled prior to the start due to heavy rain and the TV showed images of an empty track being rained on for a few hours.

I hope this man makes a miraculous recovery. I would not read anything into him breathing unaided.

I don't agree that the race should have been cancelled or run at another time. The only question to answer with regard to the weather is whether the conditions at the time of the race were suitable for racing in, and I think that is an emphatic "yes". The safety car stayed out so long at the beginning that most of the drivers came straight in and switched to intermediate tyres as soon as they could. You could quite easily argue that race control had been over cautious, because this effectively means that they felt a track that required full wet tyres was unsafe to race on (in which case why bother having wet tyres in the first place?)

At the end of the race, Massa claims that conditions were so bad that he was screaming for the race to be stopped 5 laps before the accident. This I don't understand - other drivers were pitting around this time and putting on a new set of inters based on their reading of track conditions. Although apparently the Williams is like driving a hovercraft in the wet, so his perception may have been very different.

[JustYield]

The desire to clear an accident quickly appears to me to lead to inappropriate means by which to do so. With all the added safety it appears utterly incongruous to me that a pretty much unmodified JCB type vehicle is deployed within the racing environment. Even under double waved yellows the speeds involved make collision with such a vehicle highly dangerous as yesterdays horrible events show.

No doubt there'll be a full investigation and F1 will evolve and carry on.I do wonder in a society that has become very risk adverse / litigious whether the days of wet racing are finished and we'll see American style cessations when the heavens open? Personally I hope not. Rain sorts the good from the great in F1.

I haven't seen footage of the crash but deploying an unmodified JCB onto a track at the corner where a car had just spun off does seem to be the height of idiocy.

Agree about the wet - there's some footage of Prost remonstrating about a wet start at a Melbourne(?) GP and all the while in the background you can see Senna sitting Zen like in his car getting in the zone ignoring all the hand waving going on. It's risk averse btw, don't mean to be a knob but...