Jules Lucien André Bianchi (; 3 August 1989 – 17 July 2015) was a French racing driver who competed in Formula One from to .
Born and raised in Nice, Bianchi was the grandson of endurance racing driver Mauro Bianchi and the great-nephew of Formula One driver Lucien Bianchi. Graduating from karting to junior formulae in 2007, Bianchi won his first title at the 2007 French Formula Renault 2.0 Championship with SG Formula. After winning the 2008 Masters of Formula 3, Bianchi won the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2009 with ART. He then progressed to the GP2 Series, finishing third in both 2010 and 2011. Bianchi then finished runner-up to Robin Frijns in the 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 Series.
A member of the Ferrari Driver Academy since 2009, Bianchi was a test driver for Ferrari in and a reserve driver for Force India in . Bianchi signed for Marussia in alongside Max Chilton, making his Formula One debut at the . Retaining his seat for , Bianchi scored his first championship points at the —finishing ninth after starting 21st on the grid—earning widespread acclaim from drivers and pundits.
During the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, Bianchi lost control of his Marussia MR03 in very wet conditions and collided with a recovery vehicle, suffering a diffuse axonal injury. He underwent emergency surgery and was placed into an induced coma, remaining comatose until his death nine months later. The number 17 was retired from Formula One in his honour by the FIA, who mandated the halo cockpit protection device in all open-wheel championships from 2018 onwards. As of the , Bianchi remains the most recent fatality in the Formula One World Championship.
Early and personal life Jules Bianchi was born in Nice, France, to Philippe and Christine Bianchi. He had two siblings, and was the godfather of future Formula One driver Charles Leclerc.
Bianchi was the grandson of Mauro Bianchi, who competed in GT racing during the 1960s and three non-championship Formula One Grands Prix in . He was also the grandnephew of Lucien Bianchi, who competed in 19 Formula One Grands Prix between and and 13 consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans (1956–1968), finishing 1st in Class three times at Le Mans, including the overall win at the 1968 24 Hours of Le Mans, before dying during Le Mans testing the following year.
Bianchi's favourite racing driver was Michael Schumacher.
Junior racing career Bianchi's exposure to motorsport started at around three years of age through karting and was facilitated by the fact that his father owned a kart track. Since age 17, Bianchi was professionally managed by Nicolas Todt.
Formula Renault 2.0 In 2007, Bianchi left karting and raced in French Formula Renault 2.0 for SG Formula, where he finished as champion with five wins. He also competed in the Formula Renault Eurocup where he had one pole position and one fastest lap in three races.
Formula 3 Euro
In late 2007, Bianchi signed with ART Grand Prix to compete in the Formula 3 Euro Series.
In 2008, Bianchi won the Masters of Formula 3 at Zolder, and also finished third in the 2008 Formula 3 Euro Series season.
Bianchi continued in the F3 Euroseries in 2009, leading ART's line-up along with rookie team-mates Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Gutiérrez and Adrien Tambay. With eight wins, Bianchi sealed the title with a round to spare, at Dijon-Prenois. He then added a ninth win at the final round at Hockenheim. He also drove in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series at Monaco, after SG Formula acquired the cars formerly run by Kurt Mollekens.
GP2
Bianchi drove for ART in the subsequent GP2 Asia season and the 2010 GP2 season. He competed in three of the four rounds of the GP2 Asia championship. In the main series, Bianchi took two pole positions and a number of points positions before he was injured in a first-lap crash at the Hungaroring. In the feature race, he spun into the path of the field exiting the first corner, and was struck head-on by Ho-Pin Tung, sustaining a fractured second lumbar vertebra in the process. Bianchi was fourth in the drivers' championship at the time of his injury. Despite initial pessimistic assessments of the severity of his injury, he recovered to take part in the next round of the championship.
Bianchi remained with ART for 2011, and was partnered by 2010 GP3 Series champion Esteban Gutiérrez. He starred in the first two rounds of the 2011 GP2 Asia Series, holding off Romain Grosjean for victory in the feature race and gaining fourth in the sprint race, but he was later penalised. He finished runner-up to Grosjean in the drivers' championship. In the main series, Bianchi finished third in the championship, behind Grosjean and Luca Filippi.
Formula Renault 3.5 Bianchi opted to switch to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series for 2012, following his one-off appearance in the category in 2009. He signed for the Tech 1 Racing team, and was partnered with Kevin Korjus, and later with Daniel Abt. He finished second in the title race, narrowly losing out to Robin Frijns at the final round.
Formula One career
Test driver roles (2009–2012) In August 2009, Bianchi was linked by the BBC and various other media sources to the second Ferrari Formula One seat occupied by Luca Badoer during Felipe Massa's absence. Bianchi tested for Ferrari at the young drivers test at Circuito de Jerez for two of the three days, over 1–2 December 2009. The other drivers tested on 3 December included Daniel Zampieri, Marco Zipoli and Pablo Sánchez López as the top three finishers in the 2009 Italian Formula Three Championship. Bianchi's performance in this test led to him becoming the first recruit of the Ferrari Driver Academy and signing up to a long-term deal to remain at the team's disposal.
On 11 November 2010, Bianchi was confirmed by Ferrari as the team's test and reserve driver for the season, replacing Luca Badoer, Giancarlo Fisichella and Marc Gené, as well as confirming he would test for the team during the young driver test in Abu Dhabi over 16–17 November. Bianchi carried on his GP2 racing, as Formula 1 allows test and reserve drivers to race in parallel in other competitions. On 13 September 2011, Bianchi tested for Ferrari at Fiorano, as part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, with fellow academy member and Sauber F1 driver Sergio Pérez. Bianchi completed 70 laps and recorded a quickest lap time of 1:00.213. For the 2012 season, Ferrari loaned him to the Sahara Force India team, for whom he drove in nine Friday free practice sessions over the course of the year as the outfit's test and reserve driver.
Marussia (2013–2014)
2013
On 1 March 2013, Marussia announced that Bianchi was to replace Luiz Razia as a race driver after Razia's contract was terminated, due to sponsorship issues. Bianchi qualified 19th for the , out-qualifying team-mate Max Chilton by three-quarters of a second. Bianchi overtook Pastor Maldonado and Daniel Ricciardo on the first lap, and he eventually finished 15th on his debut. He was 19th on the grid again in Malaysia, 0.3 seconds away from Q2. Bianchi fell behind the Caterhams at the start of the race, but moved up the order after the pit stops, eventually going on to finish 13th, ahead of his teammate, and both Caterhams. As of the , Bianchi had beaten his teammate in all qualifying sessions and all races that both of them had finished. In the he and Charles Pic of Caterham were given ten-place grid penalties for receiving three reprimands over the season, and at the race, his race ended early after a collision with Giedo van der Garde.
2014
In October 2013, Marussia confirmed that Bianchi would stay at the team for the following season. After starting off the season with struggles in Australia, in which he was not classified, Bianchi overcame the odds to score his – and his team's – first World Championship points by finishing ninth at the .
Out of the nine races which Bianchi and Chilton completed without retiring, during the 2014 season, he was the quicker driver in eight of them, establishing his status as the first driver. Chilton retired twice, and Bianchi five times, with three of Bianchi's retirements being mechanical failures.
Days before his fatal accident, Bianchi declared himself "ready" to step into the Scuderia Ferrari race seat should the team need him amid the looming departure of Fernando Alonso.
2014 Suzuka accident
The 2014 Japanese Grand Prix was held at the Suzuka Circuit on 5 October, under intermittent heavy rainfall caused by the approaching Typhoon Phanfone and in fading daylight.
On lap 42 of the scheduled 53-lap race, Adrian Sutil's Sauber spun out of control and crashed in the run-off area on the outside of the Dunlop Curve (turn seven). On lap 43, Bianchi did not slow down enough to avoid losing control while approaching the double waved yellow flags near the Dunlop Curve, lost control of his car, and veered rightdirectly towards the same spot where the Sauber had stopped. Bianchi collided with the rear of a wheel loader that was tending to the removal of Sutil's car. Spectators' video footage and photographs of the accident revealed that the left side of Bianchi's Marussia car was extensively damaged and the roll bar destroyed as it slid under the wheel loader. The impact was such that the wheel loader was partially jolted off the ground, causing Sutil's Sauber, which was suspended in the air by the crane, to fall back to the ground. The race was stopped on lap 44, and Lewis Hamilton was declared the winner.
Bianchi was reported as being unconscious after not responding to either a team radio call or marshals. He was treated at the crash site before being taken by ambulance to the circuit's medical centre. Since transport by helicopter was not possible due to poor weather conditions, Bianchi was further transported by ambulance, for 32 minutes under police escort. The destination was the nearest hospital, Mie Prefectural General Medical Center in Yokkaichi, which was away from the Suzuka circuit. Initial reports by his father to television channel France 3, were that Bianchi was in critical condition with a head injury and was undergoing an operation to reduce severe bruising to his head. The FIA subsequently said that CT scans showed Bianchi suffered a "severe head injury" in the crash, and that he would be admitted to intensive care following surgery.
Among his first hospital visitors immediately after the Grand Prix were Marussia's CEO Graeme Lowdon and team principal John Booth (the latter staying by Bianchi's side even after the inaugural Russian Grand Prix), as well as Ferrari's team principal Marco Mattiacci and fellow driver Felipe Massa.
Bianchi's parents arrived on 6 October and were joined, three days later, by their other children as well as Bianchi's best friend Lorenzo Leclerc, the older brother of his godson Charles. The family released a statement the next day, expressing appreciation for the outpouring of support from the public and for the presence of Professor Gerard Saillant, president of the FIA Medical Commission, and Professor Alessandro Frati, neurosurgeon of the Sapienza University of Rome, who travelled to Japan at the request of Scuderia Ferrari. They also provided a medical update, confirming that the injury suffered was a diffuse axonal injury and that Bianchi was in a critical but stable condition.
Initial media reports in October 2014—said to be based on information obtained from Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) documents—claimed that the speed at the moment of loss of control was recorded at and that the impact generated . This data had been sourced from Bianchi's g-sensors in his earplugs; however, it was understood that these slipped out at a crucial moment.