Jules Bianchi dies after 9 months in coma

Jules Bianchi passes away after 9 months in coma

Jules Bianchi, had a massive accident in Suzuka in October 2014. Since that day he had been in Coma. However, his family informed that today his battle came to an end. "Jules fought right to the very end, as he always did, but today his battle came to an end. The pain we feel is immense and indescribable".

Jules Bianchi was a promising driver and he was driving for Marussia. He had got 2 points in Monaco, the only points by Marussia till date. The bonus due to the 9 place and 2points earned by Jules Bianchi helped the team remain afloat whereas Caterham winded up. Marussia later went into administration in 2014 and could successfully come out of it and race in 2015 as Manor racing.

Jules Bianchi had crashed into a recovery vehicle which was extracting the crashed vehicle of Adrian Sutil. The rain and extreme low light had made visibility very poor and Jules crashed into the back of the recovery vehicle. A FIA internal report had stated that Jules didn't sufficiently slow down and his speed was 126 kmph. Many had felt the delay due to rains and subsequent low light had made the race virtually un-driveable. Unfortunately, the stewards decided to continue with the race and the consequences are there for all to see.

Jules Bianchi was a bright young driver who would have one day driven for Ferrari. He was honing his craft in Marussia and getting ready to move to the bigger team. Unfortunately, he was cruelly taken away from us at such a young age.

A man in coma for so long needs top notch care for a long long time before one can expect him to recover. The initial medical support immediately after the impact is very important and decides the extent of injury and the recovery period, if any. It may be pertinent to mention that Michael Schumacher is still recovering from Coma. Michael Schumacher had lot of money achieved during his phenomenally successful career. He is a billionnnaire. However, a few months back his wife had to sell off his private jet and his holiday home. Jules Bianchi being a young lad and at just starting out in a lowly team, his family would have found the medical costs unnerving. Unfortunately, we don't hear FIA or anyone else coming to help Jules Bianchi's family to lessen the financial burden.

Manor racing tweeted "We are devastated to lose Jules after such a hard-fought battle. It was a privilege to have him to race for our team.

F1 is an inherently dangerous sport. However, the safety factors have improved. Despite that, it was criminal negligence in conducting a race in poor visibility. I hope Formula 1 and FIA learn their lessons from this incident. Will they?

Hamilton wins red-flagged Japanese F1 Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton overtook Nico Rosberg in lap 29 in spectacular fashion to lead the race till it was red-flagged in lap 47 when Jules Bianchi crashed.

Jules Bianchi of Marussia crashed into a recovery vehicle which had been deployed after Adrian Sutil's crash. Bianchi suffered severe head injuries and has undergone head surgery. The result was backdated to lap 44. Aware about the extent of injuries to Jules Bianchi there was no celebration on the podium by winner Lewis Hamilton, second placed Nico Rosberg and third placed Sebastian Vettel. There were no champagnes opened and the stony face of the drivers reflected the severity of the incident.

The weather reports indicated that the Japanese F1 Grand Prix will have massive rains. Accordingly FIA had given the option to hold the race earlier in the day. However fearing cancellation by spectators, the race organisers decided to hold it on the scheduled time. So the race was started under safety car and the visibility was extremely poor. The safety car period ended in lap 9 and normal racing began. However, the spray from the cars ahead made it difficult for the drivers.

Daniel Ricciardo of RedBull finished 4th behind his teammate Vettel. He was followed by Jenson Button of McLaren in 5th. It was a good performance from Jenson Button whose seat for next year is in doubt.

Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa of Williams came in 6th and 7th. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India finished on 8th.

Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso who doesn't have a race seat next year finished on 9th. He was followed by Sergio Perez of Force India on 10th.

Kvyat of Toro Rosso finished without points on 11th. He was followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari on 12th. Infact both the two Ferrari's finished without points as earlier Fernando Alonso's engine failed and he had to retire in the 2nd lap during the safety car period itself.

Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber and Kevin Magnussen of McLaren finished on 13th and 14th. The Lotus duo of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado finished on 15th and 16th.

Marcus Ericsson of Caterham finished 17th ahead of Max Chilton of Marussia in 18th. Kamui Kobayashi of Caterham finished 19th and last in his home race. This may be his last race considering his performance as well as the difficult financial position of the Caterham team.

Retirements in Japanese F1 Grand Prix 2014

Jules Bianchi             Marussia
Adrian Sutil               Sauber
Fernando Alonso       Ferrari

Vettel wins from pole in Monaco as a marshal dies

Vettel celebrates in Monaco as a Marshal dies

Sebastian Vettel of Redbull continued his race towards grabbing the 2013 F1 championship by winning from the Pole position. Unfortunately, we are all reminded how dangerous this sport is when a marshall who was helping assist the retrieval of Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber car tripped and fell infront of the crane and was runover. He was initially treated in Giles Villenueve centre - incidentally Giles Villenueve, despite being a champion and head and shoulders better in technique than the current crop of drivers like Esteban Gutierrez had himself lost his life in a racing incident.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who had started in the third row, beat Lewis Hamilton to the second position and Alonso promptly declared that this second position is like a win for him. Lewis Hamilton was in second position till the last six laps when Alonso overtook him.

Mark Webber, Vettel's teammate at Redbull, suffered damage to the nose of his car when Giedo van der Garde of Caterham turned into him while being lapped ruining Webber's race. Mark Webber had to settle in the 4th position.

Hamilton's teammate Nico Rosberg complained of brake problems and finished in fifth position. One cannot be sure when Rosberg complains, as he is known to complain when he is beaten by his teammate. We had seen that in many occassions when Schumacher beat him in the race or in qualifying.

Jean-Eric Vergne drove a great race and finished in sixth position with his Toro Rosso car. His teammate Daniel Ricciardo was however down in 15th position.

Paul di Resta of Force India brought some cheer by finishing in 7th position. He was gentle on his tyres as he ran the medium spec pirelli tires for about 56 laps.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari who had earlier crashed during testing managed to stay clear of the barriers and finished the race in 8th position. Kimi Raikkonen finished in a poor ninth position reflecting the downward move of his Lotus team. Raikkonen an early winner in the season and close contender for championship has now dropped down to third position behind Alonso. Raikkonen had technical problems with the brake pedal and also had a pitstop problem with the right rear wheel. It appears that Raikkonen is going to fade out if his Lotus team doesn't do some significant upgrades. Mercedes just overtook lotus for third position. The temperamental finn may also choose to not renew his contract with Lotus if the going doesn't improve.

Adrian Sutil had an incident packed race with a spin, damaged wings. However he appeared to have not lost his animosity for Hamilton. He blocked Hamilton and later Alonso could overtake Hamilton. Sutil was later penalised with a drive through penalty for blocking Hamilton and that dropped Sutil to 10th position. Force India is happy with the twin point scoring positions of their drivers.

Raikkonen's teammate Romain Grosjean came in a poor 13th and without points.

Sergio Perez and Jenson Button scored 11th and 12th positions while employing different strategies. It was a pointless weekend for McLaren.

Williams drivers Valeri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado finished in 14th and 16th positions. Maldonado's collision with Sutil earned him a drive through penalty. However, Williams didn't have the overall pace to make into the points paying positions.

Jules Bianchi of Marussia finished in 17th position ahead of Charles Pic of Caterham at 18th and Max Chilton of Marussia at 19th.

Nico Hulkenberg had a contact with Giedo van der Garde of Caterham and that resulted in Hulkenberg retiring with a puncture. Soon afterwards Giedo van der Garde crashed while exiting the pits, without any assistance from any fellow driver. It was a significant event, as the marshal died while clearing Gutierrez's car.

Vettel wins Indian Grand Prix 2012

Vettel wins Indian Grand Prix from Pole

Sebastian Vettel scored an easy win starting from Pole. He could ward off the challenge of Fernando Alonso who was 9.4 seconds behind. Mark Webber who started second, finished behind Fernando Alonso. Lewis Hamilton tried to win the third place from Mark Webber but could not do so despite Webber having a KERS problem. Hamilton was 0.6 seconds behind Mark Webber. Hamilton's team mate Jenson Button came 5th and he set the fastest lap time on the 60th and last lap.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari came 6th. Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus was only 0.7 seconds behind Massa and finished at 7th. Raikkonen now doesn't have any hope for the drivers title. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India finished 8th, Romain Grosjean of Lotus finished 9th and Bruno Senna finished 10th.

The Indian Grand Prix 2012 didn't have much of first lap excitement as the usual suspects Romain Grosjean, Pastor Maldonado and Kamui Kobayashi kept their cool. However, it was Jear-Eric Vergne who clipped Michael Schumacher's rear right tyres forcing him to pit. Since then it was an immensely forgettable race for Michael, as he was lapped in no time. Though he was setting comparable times as the top drivers, the time spent in slowly moving to the pits with a completely shredded rear tyre ensured that he couldn't move up. He was driving on 18th place and one lap down when he retired.

It is a sad race for Mercedes as well, as Nico Rosberg too finished outside the points. It would be interesting to hear Ross Brawn's excuses as he has been giving one excuse after the other in the last three years. To save his skin, he also ensured that Mercedes lured Lewis Hamilton to the team and forced Michael Schumacher to retire.

Narain Karthikeyan in the opening laps was told to mind his brakes, so he drove within himself. His teammate Pedro de la Rossa spinned and hit the barriers due to a brake problem. Narain finished at 21st position.

Final positions in Indian Grand Prix 2012:

1. Sebastian Vettel             Red Bull
2. Fernando Alonso            Ferrari
3. Mark Webber                 Red Bull
4. Lewis Hamilton             McLaren
5. Jenson Button                McLaren
6. Felipe Massa                 Ferrari
7. Kimi Raikkonen            Lotus
8. Nico Hulkenberg           Force India
9. Romain Grosjean          Lotus
10. Bruno Senna                Williams
11. Nico Rosber                Mercedes
12. Paul di Resta              Force India
13. Daniel Ricciardo        Toro Rosso
14. Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber
15. Jean-Eric Vergne       Toro Rosso
16. Pastor Maldonado      Williams
17. Vitaly Petrov              Caterham
18. Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham
19. Charles Pic                 Marussia
20. Timo Glock                Marussia
21. Narain Karthikeyan    HRT
22. Michael Schumacher Mercedes RETIRED (5 laps down)
      Pedro de la Rossa       HRT        (Accident) 18 laps down
      Sergio Perez               Sauber     RETIRED (40 laps down)


Sebastian Vettel's Indian Grand Prix win was the 4th win in a row for him. 

Vettel wins Singapore Grand Prix as Lewis retires

Sebastian Vettel wins as Lewis retires in Singapore Grand Prix

The Formula One Singapore Grand Prix saw many crashes and accidents, but the race started without mayhem as Grosjean kept his cool after coming back from a one race ban. Lewis Hamilton started from pole and retained his position. Pastor Maldonado who started in second position was passed by Sebastian Vettel as well as Jenson Button, still he retained his cool and didn’t press the destruction button.

Still there was an incident at the back of the grid where the two Caterham driver’s collided.

There was no surprise element, as both the Mercedes cars which didn’t run on the Q3 in the qualifying also choose the Super soft tyres. Michael Schumacher was told to cool his car while his teammate overtook him.

Lewis Hamilton was unfortunate that his gearbox broke down and he had to retire.  Narain Karthikeyan who was the last person to go for his pitstop amazingly running 20 laps in his supersoft tyres, hit the barriers on lap 33 and his front right wheel came off forcing a safety car to be deployed. Immediately all the drivers who hadn’t done their pitstops choose to do so. Alonso had earlier taken his pit stop, so was Raikkonen. So they choose to stay out during the safety car period. Niko Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez didn’t choose to make their pit stops and they were the only ones to have done one stop after the safety car was taken out.

It was sad for Narain as Tata Tea had just choosen to sponsor HRT car for the Singapore as well as the Indian Grand Prix.

During the safety car period, in lap 37, Pastor Maldonado was told by his Williams team that his car had a problem and he needs to stop the car. This resulted in the both the front runners retiring from the race.

Disaster stuck again for Michael Schumacher as in lap 41 he ran into the back of Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso. So interestingly Michael Schumacher has never got any points in Singapore. The safety car was redeployed. Did Schumacher get his braking wrong like last year or was it a problem with his brakes as he locked up. Fortunately, there was no animosity displayed between Schumacher and Jean-Eric Vergne as they both patted each others back. This looks like Schumacher’s fault and this incident will be investigated after the race by stewards. It is surprising that the God of Formula One, Michael Schumacher has ran into the back of another driver twice in Singapore Grand Prix.

Towards the end there were some competitive times posted by Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button as they knew that the race will not run its full 61 laps as according to rules the race can run only for a maximum of two hours. However, Button couldn't sustain the pace and Vettel won a comfortably.

Bruno Senna who was running in at 10^th position told his team that he has a loss of power and stopped his car barely a minute before the finish.

Final Result of F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2012

1.     Sebastian Vettel

2.     Jenson Button

3.     Fernando Alonso

4.     Paul di Resta

5.     Nico Rosberg

6.     Kimi Raikkonen

7.     Romain Grosjean

8.     Felipe Massa

9.     Daniel Ricciardo

10. Mark Webber

11. Serzio Perez

12. Timo Glock

13. Kamui Kobayashi

14. Niko Hulkenberg

15. Heikki Kovalainen

16. Charles Pic

17. Pedro de la Rosa

18. Bruno Senna

19. Vitaly Petrov

Retirements in Singapore Grand Prix 2012

Michael Schumacher – Lap 41

Jean-Eric Vergne – Lap 41

Pastor Maldonado – Lap 37

Narain Karthikeyan – Lap 33

Lewis Hamilton – Lap 23

                                            

Button wins from Pole in Belgian Grand Prix

Jenson Button Wins from Pole in Belgian Grand Prix

Jenson Button of Mclaren won the Belgian Grand Prix starting from pole using a one stop strategy. 

As I mentioned earlier this was to be a interesting Belgian Grand Prix race.

The start of the Belgian Grand Prix was pretty eventful with Romain Grosjean cutting across Lewis Hamilton while taking a corner. Predictably he got hit and then dangerously jumped over Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari and Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber. He nearly hit Kobayashi’s hand. Romain Grosjean this year has shows good speed and an equally bad erratic crash prone driving.

FIA authorities should remember that they had earlier banned a Japanese driver and Grosjean should be added to that list for saving a few lives.

Michael Schumacher who was on 2^nd position and was about to be overtaken by Sebastian Vettel, stopped on the 20^th lap to change over to hard tyres. He had planned for a one stop strategy. He then joined in 8^th position. This was a disastrous strategy, as Schumacher was on No. 2 and stayed there for too long and lost a lot of time vis-à-vis his other competitors who closed in to him after doing one stop. Mercedes didn’t manage a good pit stop from Schumacher either. As a result, Vettel who stopped a lap later could rejoin at 6^th position as Red Bull team managed to change his tyres at only 3.7 seconds. This incident will be investigated after the race.

There were some interesting racing between Raikkonen and Schumacher at Spa in the Belgian Grand Prix. Raikkonen passed Schumacher on the outside of the chicane in the 32^nd lap and then Schumacher passed him again by using DRS in the DRS zone.

Narain Karthikeyan spun and hit the barriers in the 32^nd lap and one of the wheels was seen coming out but Narain was safe.

Kimi again passed Schumacher on the 34^th lap and then Nico Hulkenberg too passed Schumacher. It seems Schumacher was trying to conserve his tyres. Schumacher again passed Hulkenberg using the DRS keeping the spectators entertained. Mercedes decided it was enough and then brought Schumacher to pit in lap 36. Ross Brawn was supposed to be a superb strategist but this was a blunder deciding a one stop strategy when Schumacher was losing so much time in the first stop. Schumacher despite pitting for the second stop continued to lose time.

Button won peacefully with his one stop strategy. This is his first win in Spa. This was also Jenson Button's first pole in Belgian Grand Prix. Vettel could also make his one stop strategy work and finished second. A two stopping Raikkonen finished third. The big loser being Michael Schumacher who finished seventh. Hulkenberg finished 4^th, Massa 5^th and Webber 6^th. Vergne was 8^th, Ricciardo 9^th and Paul di Resta 10^th.

Belgian Grand Prix Final Standings: 

1.     Jenson Button

2.     Sebastian Vettel

3.     Kimi Raikkonen

4.     Nico Hulkenberg

5.     Felipe Massa

6.     Mark Webber

7.     Michael Schumacher

8.     Jean Eric Vergne

9.     Daniel Ricciardo

10. Paul di Resta

11. Nico Rosberg

12. Bruno Senna

13. Kamui Kobayashi

14. Vitaly Petrov

15. Timo Glock

16. Charles Pic

17. Heikki Kovalainen

18. Pedro de la Rosa

Drivers who Did Not Finish Belgian Grand Prix

Narain Karthikeyan

Pastor Maldonado

Sergio Perez

Fernando Alonso

Lewis Hamilton

Romain Grosjean

There will be post race investigations by the stewards of the Belgian Grand Prix 2012.