2014 FORMULA 1 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX - RACE ***SPOILERS***

If you think by just pulling quotes out of context (which you do) is clever, and not immature, then I suggest you take you try taking your own advice.

To reiterate, my first line in this thread was in reference to the danger of F1 and I hoped Jules was going to be fine, yet YOU! just pulled out my glee or gloat, take it whatever way you want, and then had the audacity to accuse me of dismissing the fact a accident had happened.

Well all I can say is Pete, you only look at things the way you want to see them, and by your very actions proves that.

So to summarize, I held out an olive branch, I suppose if you simply could have acknowledge Hamilton had a great drive, it would have diffused this nonsense, however I assume you could not bring yourself to do that, fair enough.

It is a shame, I have no personal beef with you, as you know one of my favorite bands stem from your area I think, but so be it.

 

If I remember correctly some drivers came in after button but kept inters on.

 

LOL anything for you mate, is always a pleasure ..

 

Let's all just please calm down a bit. I know F1 is highly charged, it's an exciting championship, the race was difficult, and we're all feeling concerned for Jules Bianchi, which all creates a bit of tension.

We've all got a love of F1 in common, so let's try to extend gracious benefit of the doubt to one another to avoid rubbing one another the wrong way or being offended where no slight was intended. If we can do this, I'm sure everyone will have a much more enriching discussion.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

So back to the main topic of relevance from the Japanese GP - does anyone have any updates to report on Jules' condition?

 

There is now a Bianchi thread for that.

No news. Which is not that bad, at least he made it through the first 24 hours.

 

The new controversy is now why the FIA suppressed the footage of Bianchi's crash.

There are two possible reasons:

- the footage was too brutal to show
- gross negligence on part of the track workers

We have seen horrific accidents (e.g. Kubica in Canada or recently Kimi) and they showed that long before it was clear that the drivers were unharmed. And the Marussia didn't look that bad.

So my suspicion is that they want to cover up some bad stuff that happened in moving the Sauber. Sutil only said that he saw things he will never forget for the rest of his life. There is even a rumor the tractor backed up into/over the Marussia.

 

Thanks for the link-

"Hamilton overtook Rosberg around the outside into Turn 1 on lap 29 -

"I had a lot more pace than Nico and it is not a very easy circuit to follow, but fortunately I was able to get quite close, particularly in the last corner," said Hamilton.

"He had a small oversteer moment out of the last corner and with the DRS it enabled me to get alongside.

"I was confident with the balance of the car and stuck it out.

"After that the whole approach changed. I was attacking [before the pass], then I could take different lines and manage it differently.

"Obviously it didn't finish the way I would have hoped. My prayers are with [Bianchi] and his family."

 

There might be issues with the way the accident was allowed to happen and how it was responded to but the TV coverage was SOP. They never get in close when major injury is suspected.

 

I do not know how it is in other countries but in Germany not the German TV is responsible for the production but F1 themselves. So TV can just play what they get. I do not remember whether the crash of Kubica was not life on TV anyway and then the local TV just repeated that because they had it? Question is whether F1 would have given the footage afterwards if it would not be seen live as this is the case right now.
To be honest: I personally do not need to see the accident itself as this would just feed some sort of sensationalism but I think those responsible for the safety will look very carefully...It would just be good to hear more official statements and less rumours, unfortunately the last press release one of you posted earlier in this thread looks very much the way Schumachers did (thanks for support, no news because of the family...) which is not a very good sign...

 

In this day and age of cell phone cameras/videos I'm surprised that the latter (if in fact it occurred) hasn't come to light-yet.

 

Particularly in tech crazy Japan.

 

Possibly a stupid question/comment. I watch a lot of racing, I have always been amazed that under caution with the safety car out there in F1 it appears the SC is hauling a**. I saw a post or article where it said he crashed at 100 mph. Other motorsports seem to have the SC lapping at a much slower pace ..... That SLS seemed to be possibly doing 100 mph, just saying that these crashes under yellow or with a SC deployed on the track this should not be happening.
My 2 cents

 

Rain changes things. There was a race many moons ago - I believe Silverstone in late 90's - where okes were flying off the track as the safety car had superior grip due to narrower tyres...

 

heavy impact in forward motion. Just look at how the flippen crane lifts from the impact : (((

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASnqrbMtnos

 

OMG!!!!

Brutal, absolutely brutal.

Track workers didn't do anything wrong. But I'm surprised to see Bianchi go off like that. I thought he came sideways but no. Like a missile into the tractor.

 

Remember, though, that Vettel pitted after Button and stayed with intermediates. I don't think that track conditions were horrible, but in context people will be more concerned that the race proceeded in the midst of a typhoon forecast.

As we saw, only a sparse crowd showed up to witness the race under these conditions.

 

Oh no. This is just terrible.

 

In truth the SC runs as slowly as is practical. F1 cars can run only so slow for so long.

 

That is so much worse than I thought. I can't imagine how that even happened. I hope it doesn't turn out to be that he somehow didn't obey the yellow or something like that. It just looks like he's going incredibly fast.

That's just really bad. From that video, I don't see how bumpers or anything like that would have made a difference. That was just a really really really horrible one of a kind incident.

How he's even alive is a miracle.

 

****! Agreed!

30 seconds, or a few feet either way, no (major) harm would have been done.

The track workers, tractor driver et al *almost* had it out of the way. If Jules had gone in a few feet differently, no harm. Damn.

Having said that, I'm starting to wonder if his car failed or something? He came in *way* too fast & straight. One of the dangers of gravel traps, particularly when wet, is they simply skid over the surface (Michael, Silverstone comes to mind as another example).

****. Seeing that, I think we've got to be thankful he wasn't decapitated!

Best wishes to all the track workers, doctors and the extrication team that were out there too. I think they did a stellar job with little regard for their own safety.

Horrible, horrible, freak accident.

Get well soon Jules,
Ian

 

Wow, that is absolutely ugly. In agreement with others, how the hell he survived that is incredible, must have been inches.

I agree, nothing the track workers did, but one wonders if the disabled car should have been left alone under those conditions. Of course, it still represents a hazard, but nothing like that tractor.

Horrible.

 

The video shows that the flag went from yellow to green well before impact.
No excuse for that.

Why in Gd's name do they need a crane of that size?

 

I get the wink there - those folks are some hard core fans! A whole miserable day weather wise, and the shots I saw they were smiling and enjoying themselves! At least until the end. The place was *packed*!

Can't help thinking the same conditions at, eg, Austin, would result in law suits as people slipped over in the mud and so on!

Ian

 

Without having a perspective of where he went off the track, it looks like he was going full bore. However, coming of turn 8, he was just putting the power down when the car aquaplaned. There's nothing but grass/gravel in the runoff area, so there isn't much speed that he would have been able to scrub off before impact. I don't think it was a case of Bianchi being reckless (well, anymore reckless than racing is in general) because the rule of a local yellow is "no passing"/maintain speed in that area.

My initial thought was that he went in sideways and his car wedged under the car. In actuality he sideswiped the crane and his helmet definitely made contact at speed. Given that video, the HANS device probably saved him from a basalar skull fracture or broken neck.

Horrible accident, and I'm still very hopeful that it doesn't end in tragedy. Without safety measures of modern F1 (HANS, higher side pods, high-impact tech, etc) this would have been an immediate fatality. There at least is a chance for Bianchi to survive this.