Jules Bianchi’s life-threatening crash at the Japanese Grand Prix "has once again highlighted that Formula One can be a very dangerous sport, despite 20 years passing since the death of a driver at a race weekend," according to Jack De Menezes of the London INDEPENDENT. Not since '94 has the sport been clouded by tragedy, "when the sad passing of both Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger saw motorsport hit one of its most haunting weekends in its history at the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola." Unfortunately, Bianchi’s accident where he hit a recovery vehicle that was attending the crash site of Adrian Sutil’s Sauber "has exposed what a dangerous proposition it can be to drive these thoroughbred racing cars at speeds in excess of 200mph." However, this time we’re not looking at the safety of the cars -- although "that will inevitably come into question over the next few weeks." Instead, we are looking at something "much simpler than the complicated designs of a Formula One car." We are looking at a decision of when to start the race, "and the proposition of a 25-year-old man losing his life because of the wrong decision is truly unacceptable." Throughout the week leading up to Sunday’s race at Suzuka, "the talk of the paddock was whether Typhoon Phanfone was going to have an impact on the afternoon start -- scheduled for 3pm local time." Now answer me this: "can you drive an F1 car in typhoon conditions?" There is "only one answer." By simply moving the race forward to 11am as proposed by the FIA, the race "would have missed the brunt of the bad weather." Yet the race organizers and circuit owners Honda "refused -- twice -- to budge on their start time, believing that a change would have a serious impact on the number of fans both at the track for the start and watching worldwide." The fact that Honda, one of the leading car manufacturers in the world, which plans on returning to F1 next year, "would put financial and political gain ahead of the safety of any man is unacceptable." The formula "has widely been criticised as being run for money and politics rather than racing purposes for many years now, but the refusal to change the timing of the race and subsequently attempt to run it as a major storm hit the Far East is a new low." Things "must change if the sport is to move forward." Allowing a simple decision such as moving the start time "would be a minuscule change compared to those that have been implemented since 1994." If the situation was that it required Bianchi’s accident to happen before the influence of power in F1 was questioned, "then the sport is in a much worse place than first thought" (INDEPENDENT, 10/6).
CRUEL IRONY: In London, Kevin Eason wrote it "seems the cruellest of ironies to befall Formula One." A year ago, the sport "was preparing for the Japanese Grand Prix when news filtered into the Suzuka paddock that María de Villota had been found dead in her hotel bedroom in Spain." The finger of suspicion "pointed straight at the injuries she suffered when she drove a Marussia car into a stationary lorry at a test session in 2012 at Duxford Aerodrome." And now this, Bianchi "is fighting for his life in hospital" after a crash in a Marussia car almost on the anniversary of De Villota’s death. A pall "hangs over Suzuka." There "is no blame attached to Marussia, as honest a bunch of racers as exist in F1, but the agony of two appalling accidents in two years will scar the team deeply." Marussia Sporting Dir Graeme Lowdon was at Bianchi’s bedside late Sunday night "awaiting the outcome of surgery on the 25-year-old’s severe head injuries." When Lowdon returns to his team, he "will be charged with lifting spirits and morale to face another harsh twist in this story: the Russian Grand Prix -- Marussia’s home race and the inaugural race on Russian soil -- is next weekend." As many as 70,000 fans "will turn out to watch the car in Russian red, perhaps not knowing or understanding that the team have been robbed of their young star, the driver who achieved the seemingly impossible at Monaco this season." That was where he drove to ninth place "and earned the first points for a hard-up team who had signally failed to get on the scoreboard in four seasons and seemed to exist on financial fresh air." That one result, though, "could yet be worth a bonus" of about £25M ($40M) for the team if it hangs on to ninth place in the constructors’ table this season. It "has become too easy to forget that driving at 200mph is dangerous." We "have seen so many drivers clamber from the wreckage, shake themselves down and start all over again that they appear indestructible." In the 20 years since Ayrton Senna died at Imola, "there has not been a driver fatality in F1." Safety -- of cars and circuits -- "has improved by leaps and bounds and far outstrips any other form of motor racing." It is a fact of single-seater racing that the only vulnerable part of the body is the head and this accident "will quicken the debate over whether cockpits should be designed into future F1 cars" (LONDON TIMES, 10/6).
'FREAK ACCIDENT': Also in London, Daniel Johnson wrote former FIA President Max Mosley described the crash as a "freak accident." Mosley said that "the officials followed correct procedures and were blameless in what happened in the Japanese Grand Prix." Mosley: "What happened in Suzuka was very unfortunate -- a freak accident -- and I can’t really fault any of the people involved, the marshals or the race director or any of those people. Everything was done as it should have been." However, some former drivers "questioned why the safety car was not deployed" following Sutil’s off on lap 42. Jacques Villeneuve, the '97 world champion, said, "When I was racing, and afterwards, I was always saying that any time there is an accident there should be a safety car. There should not be room for judgement. If someone has to go out to pick up a car stranded on the track, it’s simple. Accident -- safety car and that’s it. It should have been like that for years" (TELEGRAPH, 10/6). The BBC reported Williams driver Felipe Massa said he was "screaming" his concerns about the conditions at the Japanese Grand Prix before Jules Bianchi suffered a severe head injury in a crash. Massa, the last driver to have a serious injury in F1, said, "I'm worried." He added, "I was already screaming on the radio five laps before the safety car that there was too much water on the track." Massa, who suffered a fractured skull during qualifying for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix when a spring from another car hit his helmet, said, "They took a bit too long to bring out the safety car and it was dangerous. So we saw that there were some crashes at the end." BBC F1 chief analyst Eddie Jordan believed that it "was the correct decision to let the race go ahead, despite the conditions." Jordan: "My thoughts are very clear, we're here to race and that's what should have happened and that's what did happen" (BBC, 10/5).
TWITTER BACKLASH: In London, De Menezes wrote the Lotus Twitter account immediately tweeted Marussia to tell them to "Cheer up," which "unsurprisingly triggered a massive backlash from users who had not seen the intended funny side of the message." Lotus soon issued an apology for its message, and explained that it "had not realised the situation that was unfolding at the end of the Japanese Grand Prix." It tweeted, "Apologies for tweet, @Marussia_F1Team, we hadn't see the incident, hope all is well." Later on, it added, "All our thoughts and prayers go to @Jules_Bianchi, his team and his family tonight. #ForzaJules." The error of judgement "comes as the latest controversy surrounding the Lotus Twitter account." It was heavily criticised for its response to the news that Kimi Raikkonen "would be leaving the team to join Ferrari at the end of 2013" (INDEPENDENT, 10/6).
