Bianchi's parents share 'positive actions' 10 years on from Japan accident

Jules Bianchi's parents have detailed the "positive side" to the work the foundation set up in the late F1 driver's name is doing, 10 years after his ultimately fatal accident.

Marussia driver Bianchi collided with a recovery truck during the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka on October 5th, 2014 as Typhoon Phanfone hit Japan. He suffered massive head injuries and never regained consciousness.

He died in his home town of Nice in France on July 17th 2015, becoming the first F1 driver to die as a result of injuries sustained in a grand prix since Ayrton Senna in 1994.

The type of brain injury sustained by Bianchi was a diffuse axonal injury, where the brain is rapidly accelerated and then de-accelerated with patients typically not surviving after sustaining severe cases like Bianchi. 

In his memory, his family set up the Jules Bianchi Association, which helps provide support to families with loved ones suffering from critical brain injuries, with his father Phillipe highlighting the good work being done.

"It is the only way to make Jules exist today," he told Feeder Series.

"When Jules came back from Japan in the coma, he was hospitalised in Nice, in the brain injury department.

"Everyone in the department was just wonderful with him. When Jules passed away, we realised there were so many things to do in this hospital.

“Jules was famous, loved, handsome, nice … the luck we had in our misfortune is that Jules was publicised. 

"I meet too many people mourning after the loss of their child who don’t have our luck.

"We always have to see the positive side. It is quite paradoxical, I have to say.

"For us, the positive side is to be able to make Jules live through our actions with the association. Jules is still active. That’s the magic side of everything."

Safety advancements

In the aftermath of the accident, the FIA investigated the circumstances, with the virtual safety car created to mitigate the possibility of a similar type of accident occurring again, with Bianchi aquaplaning off track under double-waved yellows as Adrian Sutil's stricken Sauber was recovered and hitting the recovery vehicle.

The halo, which would not have saved Bianchi's life given the sheer forces involved, was introduced in 2018, with his mother Christine revealing that such safety advancements gives "some comfort.

"It is still difficult for us but we do what we can to progress the association we created in Jules’ memory," she is quoted as by the Daily Mirror.

"We also help the Archet Hospital in Nice with purchasing items for the brain injury department, for the comfort of their patients and for the staff who helped look after Jules. 

"The improvements made in F1 have already saved other drivers, ie the virtual safety car, the halo - that gives some comfort as Jules' memory lives on."