Jules Bianchi’s passing marks the end of a 21-year spell without a death in Formula One.
It is forgivable that those who do not follow the sport directly would be unaware who the talented Frenchman was or the potential he had to make an impact in the sport.
However, the Ferrari academy driver had all the ingredients to become a giant of the sport, similar to the last driver who lost his life in an F1 car, Ayrton Senna.
Bianchi was born into a racing family, both his father and grandfather were motorsport enthusiasts and naturally the Frenchman followed in their footsteps.
Graduating from a successful go-kart career, Bianchi moved into Formula Renault 2.0 in 2007, taking the championship title upon his first attempt. He then spent two years in Formula 3 Euro Series, taking third place in his inaugural season, before winning the series the following year with nine victories.
Ferrari’s Academy
His progression in the sport caught the eye of Ferrari, who signed the Nice-Born racer to their Driver Academy, before placing him in GP2 with the dominant ART squad. However, in GP2, where instant success is important to stake a claim for a full-time F1 seat, Bianchi’s rise seemed to slow, taking third place in the championship twice.
Despite this, his exploits were enough to secure a test driver role with Force India and a switch to Formula Renault 3.5 in 2012.
The grid said goodbye with a minute’s silence in Hungary.
At that time, Ferrari was keen to help the Frenchman obtain much needed testing opportunities and openly stated their goal was to sign Bianchi for the works team.
“It’s important for our project that Jules reaches his goal,” Luca Baldisseri, head of Ferrari’s Driver Academy, is quoted by ESPNF1.com back in 2012.
“The objective is to give him a future in Formula 1 as a Ferrari driver.”
Former Ferrari President Luca Di Montezemolo underlined their admiration of Bianchi after his death, stating that he was being groomed to replace Kimi Raikkonen at the end of the Finns contract.
“Jules was one of us; part of the Ferrari family,” Di Montezemolo told Sky Italia.
“The Suzuka incident took away from us a first-rate person; reserved, quick, very educated, very close to Ferrari, who knew how to interact with the engineers.
“He was the driver we had chosen for the future, once the collaboration with Kimi Raikkonen had finished.”
The Scuderia’s faith in Bianchi seemed well placed and, after coming within four points of claiming the Formula Renault 3.5 title in his one and only year in the series, the Frenchman was rewarded with a full-time drive with Marussia.
Marussia and Monaco
Few drivers are able to have enough ability to impress on-lookers in a car which is more than a second off the pace. Fernando Alonso famously claimed 10th place in the 2001 German Grand Prix with the underfunded Minardi which earned the Spaniard a test driver with Renault. Likewise, Mark Webber finished an incredible 5th place at the 2002 Australian Grand Prix with the same team.
Just like Webber and Alonso before him, Bianchi began to turn heads in a car which is seconds behind the leading pace-setters. The Frenchman claimed 13th place in the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, which was enough to secure Marussia a 10th place finish in the constructors’ championship and access to additional reward funding.
However, it was the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix which will forever be remembered as Bianchi’s finest moment. Starting at the back of the grid after a gear-box change, with an additional five-second time penalty for a grid position infringement, Bianchi tore his way through to a ninth place finish on a track where it is notoriously hard to overtake.
Jules Bianchi (Marussia) at the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix.
Graeme Lowdon, CEO of the Manor Formula One Team, formerly known as Marussia, paid tribute to his former race driver’s attitude and talent in the lead up to this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
“One of the first things that struck me about Jules was the very first day he came into our garage in Formula One for a seat fit in Barcelona,” Lowdon Said.
“He came in as a Ferrari development driver – that already is a sign of all the hard work and skill that he’s put in – and he came in with an eagerness in his eye, he could not wait to get into that Formula One car.
“And yet, he had a trait that you don’t often see too much these days, and that was he was incredibly grateful. Grateful to have the chance to be in Formula One, and that reflected off the fact that he knew he was going to be good at driving the car and that was one of the defining points.
“Somebody did ask “what do you remember the most?” and I can honestly say that what I remember the most was from the minute he stepped into the garage, and the moment we said goodbye, he was a pleasure to work with. I dearly miss him now he’s not here.”
Adieu
His absence on the grid since last year’s tragic Japanese Grand Prix only underlines the dangers that are inherent within F1. It is a testament to the sport that so few drivers have died in the last three decades compared to the frequency of the 50s, 60s & 70s.
F1 is a tight, close group and the death of one of the sport’s own will always be marked with respect and sadness in the same way a family would. It is no surprise that tributes have come from far and wide since Bianchi’s passing from close friends and pundits alike.
Many have stated that Bianchi was a World Champion in the making and, whilst it is difficult to accurately predict that he would have been a regular race winner, the talent he regularly showed in an F1 car was equal to the current greats of the sport today. It is a travesty that he did not have the opportunity to show the world what we all knew was possible.
Adieu Jules, merci pour les souvenirs.
(Farewell Jules, thank you for the memories).
