Jules Bianchi Undergoes Surgery

it may surprise you, but COTA is extremely stingy when it comes to perks!
heck, they usually get us our credentials the day before we are to work! (which then have to be distributed all across Austin!
I wish I could get a pit pass! I usually can loiter around early in the morning in the pit area...

For short transports, helicopters sometimes take longer!
start up, safety check, fly, land, etc. etc. Unloading can be tough with complex patients (tubes, lines, etc.)

you are probably right on here.
diffuse axonal injury is a spectrum.
usually bad to horrible.
no one can predict how any one case will turn out.
sometimes "getting better" means from horrible to terrible.

sad....

 

What I figured. And not surprised at all unfortunately.....

No harm in asking though, as I said, I'm shameless here!

I'm amazed you don't have 'go anywhere, anytime' access though. It's not like we're talking about dozens of people and it would be really embarrassing if, I dunno, there was an incident in the pitlane and they wouldn't let you in!

Someone posted the hospital was about 15km's from the track, so that was my feeling too. Police escort and a quick dash, the chopper would probably still be warming up....

Thanks for the response,
Regards,
Ian

 

Looking at the video, the helmet looked intact, and it probably hit him on the side of the head. can't really tell if it was on top, as there's a pic showed him sitting in the car, with the helmet on and looked in good condition.

Just bad luck. I hope he can return back, and not into premature retirement.

 

As always, Dr H is blogging some very interesting stuff. I recommend everyone read this entry in it's entirety. Link below

I grabbed a 'highlight' (lowlight?) from it as I feel what he says here is maybe the biggest lesson they can learn.... My emphasis added;

Regards,
Ian
Before the reform frenzy starts | A Former F1 Doc Writes

 

I'll say it again. When a "wet race" is going to be declared, allow teams to make, at least, a rudimentary set-up change. If he was truly going 80kph, probably this would not have mattered in this case, but certainly it would have saved a lot of carbon fiber and strained neck muscles in the past.

 

Get CW a override switch that cuts everyones speed to pit lane speed or whatever.

 

Diffuse axonal injury | A Former F1 Doc Writes

 

Isn't pit lane speed around 50mph which is what it's estimated bianchis speed to be.

 

I'm sure thats on the discussion list.

However, once again, they've got to be careful of knee jerk reactions. I can think of many situations/scenarios where that would be a bad idea.

A Dr H notes, a little respect for the existing, highly developed flag rules would be a damn good start.

The flagging system (now Augmented with light boards & LEDS's in the cockpits of course) has served the sport very, very well for many years. As the Viz notes, 'beware the baby in the bath water'.....

Ian

 

As with Michael, we can only hope for the best possible outcome. That blow to the helmet prepared me for the diagnosis we're now hearing. The prognosis doesn't seem very encouraging.

 

Probably it's still hard to tell the impact speed on footage I have seen, it was only a suggestion, the speed could be whatever they feel fit under the conditions.

Yes I agree Ian, and on the flip side, yet again taking the driving out of the hands of the driver could be considered over the top, but in this case IF Jules had not been adhering to the flag speed, I do not know this BTW, but would it have happened, electronically over ruling the drivers speed on a safety issue, would be fine in my book.

 

We know next to nothing about Bianchi's condition . Lets hope when they brought in the same doctor as for Michael, he makes a better judgement when to intervene and when not.

 

best wishes for Bianchi,and family,wish they would stopped race at the 40 lap mark,and called it a day

 

I understand the thought process, but as I recall the theory was that Jules hit a patch of standing water that he didn't see (due to low lighting) and essentially became a passenger. He hit the crane at an estimated 80 km/h, which is not very fast (I do acknowledge that he probably scrubbed off some speed going through the gravel).

I don't believe we'll hear it was a case of reckless driving by Jules that led to the accident. I understand what Dr. H is saying, but until I hear a final accident report, I'm inclined to give the driver the benefit of the doubt.

 

good points. If I remember correctly, Sutil mentioned he was not able to see the patch of water that made him spin off and he was completely caught by surprise.

 

True but under caution how much "driving" should there be?

 

It was under double waved yellows which means: "Reduce your speed, do not overtake and be prepared to change direction or stop."

The problem is, for years now drivers have been paying lip service to this instruction, reducing speed by the minimum amount they can get away with, more often than not by simply having a slight lift of the throttle rather than braking, so they loose as little time as possible.

The FIA has then accepted this as being okay so long as the drivers sector time shows a reduction compared to their previous sector times (in some cases, the actual reduction in time was barely noticeable).

The problem is, it isn't really acceptable and the FIA should have clamped down on it long before now!

 

Agreed. One of a number of areas where the rules are under enforced.

 

Well yes I agree, however that brings up the other point I brought up in this thread or else where, whereas it's a case of Bernie catering for the European TV watching times, and that came before the issue of fading light.

As you and Pap, I think pointed out, it's the nature of the beast, weather, wrong place, wrong time, and really unlucky, racing is dangerous and all variables cannot be covered, however it's a lot safer than it was, a case of live and learn maybe.

Thinking about it, a car goes off for reason, driver error, malfunction or slippy track, however getting caught out on a flooded track, the odds are on it will catch another out.

So "IF" drivers do not heed much caution or skant regard to a slow down flag then the risk factor does increase, so if race control could quickly shorten those odds by over riding all the drivers speed, maybe this could be the way forward in future, for a safety measure.

 

I'm no doctor (just the son of one), but it doesn't seem contradictory to me. It literally means patient's condition is not deteriorating anymore, and is stable (breathing correctly -even if artificially-, heart-rate normal, etc). Any MDs feel free to correct me .

The bad news for Bianchi is F1 racing is likely over. Schumacher was lucky that he was on his way out of racing. But having a normal life otherwise, would be the best news for Bianchi and his family. Hope that's the case.

Yep. Or even lap 42, when rain was a lot stronger, and wasn't going away. There were full points awarded already, and they were in the middle of a typhoon, so it'd have been the most sensible thing to do, and both Sutil's and Bianchi's accidents would have been avoided. Oh well.

 

Thanks.

 

They also could establish a limiter button, similar to the pitlane one, then administer penalties for those who exceed. I do agree there is a "live and learn" to be found in this incident.

One thing I will concede (because I'm just now remembering this): Sutil and Bianchi were dicing through Dunlop when Sutil crashed out at that location. Since Bianchi was trailing, he of all drivers had to know there was water danger at that spot. I'd forgotten that detail in the midst of the horrible accident.

 

Exactly, it doesn't seem like rocket science to me, maybe we should enroll in the rule making procedure, there would be no bias of course .....

 

They shouldn't have been racing at all in that crap. What a needless situation that could have been avoided if some rational thought had taken place. Geez, they had the Tsunami bearing down on 'em. Come on gang. Was it worth it?

 

Precisely. The flagging system has evolved since the dawn of the sport and has served us well. Again, for anyone that missed it, here's the thoughts of Dr H;

Before the reform frenzy starts | A Former F1 Doc Writes

Well worth reading, makes the most sense of most of what I've read so far.....

Hardly! They'd run pretty much the entire race on inters! Even the late stops some of them chose inters rather than full wets.

I'm not aiming this at anyone in particular, but I'm sure many of those who now claim it should have been stopped or put behind the SC earlier would be same ones howling that they deploy the SC far too fast......

Agreed, hopefully things will continue to get safer for all; drivers & track workers in particular.

However, as just my first objection to a "Charlie button" that engages the limiter (or similar) Can you imagine how many spins we'd have seen after he engaged it!?.... If I'm already on the edge in Spoon and suddenly lose half my power, bad things are going to happen!

I suspect the very best course of action right now is to enforce the damn flagging rules! "BE PREPARED TO STOP" does not mean "cut 1/2 second off your sector time"!

Get well soon Jules,
Ian