Poor kid.
The alternatives are few and obvious for this. "If he finds himself with huge disabilities, we're pretty sure it's not at all what Jules would want. We had talked about it. He told us that if he were to have an accident similar to Michael Schumacher's, if he were even just not to be able to drive anymore, it would be very hard for him to accept it. Because it was his life."
I really think this is probably Charlie's fault. They should have stopped the race, and let the Sauber be cleared off first..
Err, no. Don't put this on Charlie. Bianchi sped up on his own account. Stopping the race everytime a car is stranded is frankly idiotic.
Unpractical. He ignored the SC and circuit wide yellow and was doing triple digits speeds and crashed. Driver error. Sad but true
Let's also be honest with ourselves. What do most racing drivers think when they see a yellow flag? "Here's an opportunity to close the gap to the car in front of me".
That's why we have rules. If he had not crashed there would have been a good chance that they had given him a time penalty to be added at the end of the race. IIRC there were only two guys breaking the rules going flat out. Bianchi was one of them. The bigger question is whether the team was egging him on. There were some rumors to that effect. But regardless, he is the one sitting behind the wheel making the decision. And in this case it was a really dumb one, regardless of the consequences: He had so little to gain by closing the gap. He as a driver already gave the team precious points at Monaco and was their darling and he had shown the world that he could drive and was quasi the next in line for a seat with Ferrari. And he threw all that plus his life away for what? In a way it reminds me of the Gilles' accident. Also utterly pointless and avoidable.
That only lasts for a lap or so. Waiting for places to stabilize before putting a crane in a dangerous spot may extend the yellow a bit but is the prudent thing to do.
Agree completely. I think the knee-jerk reaction when someone is hurt so severely is to look for outside reasons and causes. The crane, the weather, the X... no one wanted to look at the victim himself and question whether or not he was at fault... at the time... it doesn't seem fair nor appropriate and can only come across as being disrespectful at the very least ... at that time. But now that emotion has waned somewhat and there is a need for legitimate answers, the conclusion unfortunately appear fairly obvious. You can argue all sorts of things, but the bottom line with his crash is that he was going way too fast in way too bad of conditions at a dangerous and inappropriate time under yellow, and doing so around a treacherous corner that already claimed a driver. It's a sad conclusion for him and probably makes the incident and results hurt a lot more for those who love him and are close to him.
I'd go further personally. Why not black flag the race, have everyone pit in position, get crane out, recover car, restart?
Short answer - The mighty TV God. Black flags & restarts mess with their schedules, and we can't have that!........ While I'm terribly saddened by what happened to a young and upcoming driver, "motor racing is dangerous". Always has been, always will be. They cannot guard against every unexpected eventuality. Further, just look back at some of the "race threads" here - Many folk argue that "the SC should never have been deployed", "why is the SC still out?", "back in the day they'd have let them race", blah, blah. Godspeed Jules, Ian
I thought the only rule was not to pass under yellow and "slow down". It doesn't define what slow down means - is that a tenth a corner, a hundredth? How is it enforced? Is there also someone timing them to see if they are slowing down? Your logic is sound for sure, but I severely doubt those thoughts entered his mind at the time. If they were egging him on, that is very wrong IMHO because of the conditions.
All about the $$$$$. Sad. Sure it is dangerous for sure; no illusions about that. But putting a crane out there with those guys under yellow is silly to me. Might as well be a huge dagger pointed at them or a pit with spikes in it. Much safer to just hit another disabled F1 car than that thing; not to mention the workers out there at the time risking their lives. ...and if you go back far enough, they let people continue to burn in the car during the race. So, times change.
You are right. The rules have always been vague about yellow flag, and invariably they were abused by drivers also. That's why the safety car system was introduced (which itself causes other problems), because drivers cannot disipline themselves and have very little concern for their and others safety, including track workers. I would have thought that handheld speed cameras to monitor the yellow flag zoness would have done the trick (with severe time penalties), but they were never introduced. I never understood why not. Now, they have "virtual safety car" zones, where speeds are monitored. That's far better than a safety car period, since it neutralises only the zone affected, but not the whole course. It's also fairer to drivers who have distanced their opponents and don't see their effort negated by the field bunching up behind them. That has always been my main gripe against safety car periods.
It wouldn't be silly is drivers were made to slow down to a "pit speed limit" pace around the crane intervention, instead of ignoring the yellow flags as many do. F1 cars are already fitted with a device that limits their speed, why are drivers not made to use them?
That's the best explanation to that accident. It may seem cruel to say it loud, but Bianchi contributed to his accident by driving recklessly at the time. A risk too far ...
