Sochi: Formula One has learned lessons from Jules Bianchi’s life-threatening crash in Japan and will make key changes to improve safety, two of the sport’s leading figures said. Jean Todt, president of the International Motoring Federation (FIA), and the ruling body’s race director Charlie Whiting made this clear during a briefing in the paddock late on Friday at the inaugural Russian Grand Prix.
The two also revealed more details of the terrible accident in which the 25-year-old Frenchman’s Marussia car crashed into a recovery vehicle at he conclusion of the rain-lashed Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka last Sunday.
The film showed Sutil run off the dry racing line, in heavy rain, causing his Sauber to spin off the track. Bianchi appeared to do the same, but attempted to correct his slide and was pitched, nose-first, off the track into a collision with the heavy vehicle, carrying a crane in use to recover Sutil’s car.
In the collision, Bianchi suffered severe head injuries including a diffuse axonal injury to his brain.
Whiting, who is in the process of completing a full report of the accident, explained that the FIA wanted drivers to slow down more during such incidents.
“The next stage up is a Safety Car, of course, but because the car was well away from the track, against a tyre-barrier, that was the normal procedure for us to follow. He added that “not everybody slowed down” in response to the double waved yellow flags, but declined to reveal how fast Bianchi was driving.
Bureau Report
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