Like everyone else, I am shocked and saddened by Jules Bianchi's accident and wish him a complete recovery so that he can fulfil his considerable potential.
Since Bernie has received stick in some parts of the media, let us not forget that it was he who put driver medical care on a thoroughly professional footing by the appointment of Prof. Sid Watkins. As Sid details in his autobiography, he in turn, recruited top medical talent from around the world.
The days are long gone when drivers would say that you had to choose the circuit on which to have a big accident.
A crash in Formula One makes headlines and I have been sickened by the wisdom some in the media have been displaying. Yes, the race could have been stopped earlier, with hindsight. Yes, the safety car could have been deployed, with hindsight.
With hindsight, nobody would have boarded the Titanic.
Charlie Whiting is a very experienced official who has the respect of the pit lane. He owes a duty of care to the drivers, and is conscientious in pursuing that responsibility. but motor racing is dangerous and always has been.
Oh, and shit happens.
At the front of the field drivers were giving it their all and were not leaving the track, indeed, there were some spectacular overtaking moves in terrible conditions. We saw drivers demonstrate skill that the rest of us can only dream about. It is that skill that draws us to Formula One.
Apparently, an earlier start was suggested and that would have avoided the worst of the weather, with hindsight. To read some correspondents, you would that thought it was cast in stone that rain would hit when it did. I cannot be the only person who has heard of rain being forecast during a race and it has not happened. And those have been forecasts made on the day, to the minute, with the latest satellite information.
It is not yet clear why the race did not have an earlier start, though it has been said that it was suggested. It has been said that the organisers were apparently against it because it would have disrupted the plans of so many people. They had sold tickets so they had an obligation to stage a race.
It has also been suggested that FOM did not want to disrupt television schedules. Once a channel has started to televise a race, it is locked in, even if the event is abandoned after two laps behind the safety car.
Missing from most assessments is the matter of 'face', so important in Japan. The Grand Prix is Japan's most important international sport event and not to start on time would hurt.
After the race some drivers complained that they had not been consulted as to whether they should start, but they all did. I can remember when drivers boycotted races they thought were too dangerous to run.
Is there not a Grand Prix Drivers' Association? Trying to get drivers to agree on anything, except self-interest, is like herding cats. The time for complaint was before the race, not after it.
In 1976, the Japanese GP was run at Fuji in much worse conditions. Niki Lauda thought it was madness to race and so withdrew after a couple of laps, yet he could have secured the World Championship. Niki has conspicuously not apportioned blame for Bianchi's catastrophe.
Adrian Sutil was caught out by standing water, his car aquaplaned and he became a passenger. Immediately double yellow flags were displayed and most people got through the corner at least once.
For whatever reason, driver error, car failure, a puncture, Jules left the track. What would have resulted in no more than a harmless 'off', like Adrian Sutil, resulted in a calamity.
The website of the Daily Express, a low-end British newspaper, has published a video showing green flags at the corner seconds before Bianchi arrived. That was a non-story, what matters are the flags shown at the marshals' post before the corner and they were double-yellows.
The marshals behaved impeccably, but some miserable hack tried to make them culpable. It was a case of a newspaper feeding on misfortune, as so many of them do.
Bianchi crashed into a recovery vehicle. Should the organisers have left Sutil's car where it was? Were the marshals not doing all they could? Sutil's car was not obstructing the track, therefore there was no reason to employ the safety car.
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