The Marussia team acknowledged a “huge outpouring of support and affection for
Jules and the team at this very difficult time” on Monday without revealing
details of his condition.
The governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) told reporters outside
the hospital on Monday that the Nice-born driver, who scored the tail end
team’s first ever points this season, remained in a “critical but stable”
condition.
Telegraph Sport has confirmed that the FIA
has opened an urgent investigation into the incident.
Race director Charlie Whiting has been asked directly by FIA president Jean
Todt to compile the report before Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix in Sochi on
Sunday.
Former Formula One driver Martin Brundle, now a commentator in Britain, was
one of many people involved in the sport who questioned the safety
procedures used.
He recalled his own near miss with a crane when driving in the sport 20 years
ago and questioned the need for them to be so close to the track.
“I nearly lost my life against one of them, I just missed it and hit a
marshal. I closed my eyes and I thought that was the end,” he said.
“The tractors are just too high and you are sitting down low. I’ve been saying
this for a long time.
“You are going into the barrier if you go off there. There’s no way of
recovering, you are going too fast.”
Bianchi’s accident was the most serious involving a driver at a grand prix
weekend since Brazilian Felipe Massa suffered near-fatal head injuries in
Hungary in 2009 after being hit on the helmet by a bouncing spring shed from
a car in front.
Massa made a full recovery from that incident and was racing for Williams on
Sunday.
Despite that, Formula One remains proud of its improved safety record and
constantly strives to make cars safer, but acknowledges the sport will
always be dangerous.
“We have done so much for safety,” Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone told The
Times.
“These days, you see an accident on the track and the driver undoes his safety
belt, flips off his steering wheel and jumps out unharmed.
“It’s difficult for me to say what happened and it will be for an inquiry to
find out exactly what did go on.”