PARIS, Jul 18 – The family of French Formula One driver Jules Bianchi released a statement today on on his official Twitter and Facebook that Jules has died early Saturday from serious head injuries sustained in a crash at the Japanese Grand Prix last year. Bianchi, just shy of turning 26 years old on Aug. 3, was a promising F1 driver, making his debut in 2013 with the Marussia F1 team.
His talent was the obvious and the often pushing the backmarker car to higher than expected finishes. Meanwhile, he had been in a coma accident which he collided at high speed with a mobile crane that was being used to pick up another crashed car since the October 5.
“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. Bianchi competed in 34 races over the 2013 and 2014 seasons with scoring the first ever championship on Marussia’s by finishing ninth at last year’s Monaco Grand Prix. This allowed Marussia to jump ahead of veteran team Sauber in the points standings,” the family said in a statement.
Bianchi was also a member of Ferrari’s driver development program which he has passed his Formula One test driver for Ferrari since in 2011. Besides that, the outgoing Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo also revealed that Bianchi was also a team’s pick to drive the third car for Ferrari in the event that Formula One switched to three car teams.
Bianchi’s car collided violently with a tractor near the track that was clearing a previous wreck involving driver Adrian Sutil at the rain-soaked Japanese Grand Prix on Oct. 5, 2014. After that, he was rushed to the hospital with severe head injuries. We feel saddened that promising young driver has passed away and our thoughts will be remain as his friends, family and team.
PHOTO CREDIT : The Independent
