'Arch rivals to close friend' - Jules Bianchi remembered by former F1 peer

Today marks 10 years to the day that Jules Bianchi sadly passed away, nine months on from his crash at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.

Bianchi had a successful junior career en route to F1 and frequently raced against Dutch rival Giedo Van der Garde.

Speaking to RacingNews365 in an exclusive interview, Van der Garde reflected on how his relationship with Bianchi developed over time.

"We were really arch rivals of each other in Formula 2,” he said. “We were also pretty often at odds with each other. In Monaco and Barcelona, we went off together.

"He was hard, very hard, really just a pure racer who could drive very well. I had a little more experience in that class but you could already see he was doing really well in his first season.

“We had nice fights, but there were also times when he crashed into me or I pushed him off the track, so it was really hard [driver] against hard [driver].”

The respect shown between the pair is similar to what is being witnessed today between Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri, according to Van der Garde.

“If you look back at that now, you think of Piastri and Verstappen very quickly now,” he said. “Those guys have respect for each other. It's hard, but beautiful racing. 

“That was a little bit with us, too. And sometimes we went over that, but well, we were young dogs, so that's when that happens."

Below: Van der Garde and Bianchi crash at the start of the F2 Sprint Race from Barcelona in 2011.

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A growing relationship

Having spent a couple of years together in F2, the only way for the duo was up.

In 2013, both drivers made their F1 debuts - Van der Garde at Caterham and Bianchi at Marussia.

With both squads being the least competitive on the grid, their fights from F2 spilt over onto the F1 playing field.

"We often ran into each other in Formula 1 as well,” Van der Garde highlighted. 

“We ended up having more respect for each other. And we always had a lot of fights anyway, because we were both at backmarker teams.

"As the year went on, we grew closer and closer. We got along more and more. Eventually, he also became a really good friend of mine. 

“He respected me and I respected him. We became good friends and I really started to find him a top bloke.”

As the respect for one another grew on the track, it led to a boost to their personal relationship.

"My best moment with him was once while going out,” Van der Garde reflected. “There we started to connect more and more.

“I can't tell more about that, unfortunately! But he was really a very funny guy." 

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The accident

In 2014, Bianchi and Marussia experienced the high of scoring points for the first time at the Monaco Grand Prix.

It was a significant achievement for a team who was stuck towards the back of the field for several years.

But just nine rounds later at the Japanese Grand Prix, Bianchi slid off the circuit in treacherous conditions and hit a tractor that was recovering Adrian Sutil's Sauber.

Van der Garde, who was employed as a test driver for Sauber, remembers the moment well.

"All that rain, all the water that fell, the rivers, yellow flags. Then you have aquaplaning there, then you go off.

"That was the most normal thing in the world. Someone went off and then a tow truck had to come, and they had to take it off, provided it wasn't stuck and couldn't be pushed off.

"If he had gone off one metre further, he would have just been in the tyre barrier. So I think it was just the wrong timing that he went off there. If he had just gone into the tyre barrier, he would still be driving Formula 1 today."

Bianchi's death, which was the first in a grand prix race in 20 years, sent shockwaves through the paddock.

"Especially because he was so loved,” Van der Garde expressed. “He was a guy with a great future. 

“It was really intense what happened there. That did have a mega-impact in the paddock, yes.

"We were arch rivals, but we really grew closer. I will always remember that, despite the fact that it has become a sad story with the accident that happened in Japan."