Cav's Place

As anyone who has any interest in racing, and probably plenty who don’t as well, undoubtedly already knows, Jules Bianchi crashed heavily into a recovery vehicle during today’s Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix, the race eventually being stopped on lap 46 of 53 a result. The recovery vehicle was there because Adrian Sutil had crashed into the barriers in that same spot the lap before, as rain started falling once again and conditions rapidly worsened. The safety car was only deployed after Bianchi’s crash, not after Sutil’s, but I’m going to disagree with those who accuse race control of what happened, because Sutil was all right, his car was in a spot from which it could have been quickly dragged away and the fact that rain was getting heavier made it likely that sending out the safety car at that point would have essentially meant the end of the race, which is not a decision to make so quickly if it’s not obviously necessary.
The problem was where and how it happened, and the way that vehicle recovery was handled was just about asking for injuries. Admittedly, the stewards seemed most at risk, just running on the side of the track in a spot where drivers were likely to lose control in those conditions, but the moment I saw the crane I wondered why make things even worse by bringing it there? If they really wanted to use it, they could have brought it behind the barriers, to hoist Sutil’s car over them without becoming itself a hazard, but there was an opening there and I think Sutil’s car could have simply been pulled away by stewards as well, with them staying behind and on the other side of it so they won’t be directly struck in case of another accident.

As a reminder, the last Formula 1 fatality was Ayrton Senna, on that black 1994 race weekend which also claimed the life of Roland Ratzenberger. And do correct me if I’m wrong, but the last serious injury that I recall was Massa’s freak accident in 2009, when a part from Barrichello’s car flew off and smashed into his head. The helmet saved his life, but he required surgery and was out for the rest of the season.
Admittedly, Maria de Villota was involved in a serious accident in 2012, on her first actual day as a Marussia test driver, and complications from that accident were considered to be the probable cause of the heart attack which caused her death last year. However, the accident took place during a straight-line test on an airfield, so nothing to do with a race weekend, a track or anything else which may be seen as an actual Formula 1 event, and she was a test driver, so this is an entirely different matter.

As far as reactions after the race go, Massa was particularly harsh in criticizing race control, both for allowing the race to start when it did and for not stopping it before Bianchi’s crash. However, he’s pretty much the only one complaining of being allowed to race too soon, as other drivers had been repeating that the conditions were good enough for several minutes by the time the safety car finally peeled off. About the end, things were getting rather tricky, but from what I saw, other drivers and team personnel seem to generally agree that neither the amount of water on track nor the approaching sunset justified a red flag at that time, with some saying the conditions were even better than expected. And, of course, there’s Niki Lauda’s statement, along the lines one’d expect from him: “Motor racing is dangerous. We get used to it if nothing happens and then suddenly we are all surprised. We always have to be aware that motor racing is very dangerous and this accident is a coming together of various difficult things.”

While writing this, it has finally been officially confirmed that Bianchi is undergoing surgery for severe head injuries, after which he will be moved to intensive care. The fact that doctors are planning the next steps after the surgery can be taken as some good news, seeing as his condition was reported as critical and pictures of the crash and eyewitness reports made some reporters doubt that survival was a possibility. But, of course, depending on the extent of the injuries, one should always ask which is truly the better option for the person involved.