On this day, ten years ago, the Formula 1 paddock received a harsh and brutal reality check. A stark reminder of the ever-present dangers inherent with racing the quickest cars on the planet.
The two decades that followed the unforgettably ugly events at Imola in 1994 were the safest the sport had ever seen, a direct result of sweeping changes driven by a shared commitment from teams, drivers and the governing body to never experience another grand prix weekend like it again.
As a result of these efforts, an entire generation of fans grew up with the luxury of never knowing how it felt to watch one of their heroes die behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car. Yes, there had been injuries. There had also been deaths – marshals Paolo Ghislimberti and Graham Beveridge had lost their lives volunteering for the sport they loved. But drivers were different. No matter how horrific or violent the crashes, they would either be rushed to hospital and stabilised – such as Mika Hakkinen in Adelaide 1995 – or simply climb out of their wrecked cars under their own power.
Jules Bianchi raced his last grand prix 10 years ago
In that time, only two people could have been considered as dying from Formula 1-related accidents as drivers. In 2000, driver John Dawson-Damer was killed driving a 1969 Lotus 63 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, also resulting in the death of marshal Andrew Carpenter. Then, in 2013, Marussia test driver Maria de Villota, who suffered life-threatening head injuries from a testing crash the previous year, died from suspected complications from that accident.
But October 5th 2014 was the last day that 25-year-old Marussia driver Jules Bianchi was able to do what he loved – what millions of fans admired him for. Nine months later, Bianchi’s life would come to its end, a direct consequence of what happened that day at Suzuka.
Before the accident
Twenty years prior, a wet race at Suzuka had seen a near-tragedy at the fast, uphill left-hander of Dunlop. Footwork driver Gianni Morbidelli lost control of his car in the full-wet conditions, crashing into the outside tyre barriers. The incident was covered under local yellow flags, with multiple marshals and two course vehicles entering the track surface.
Moments later, Martin Brundle aquaplaned off the circuit at the same spot as Morbidelli, sliding into the barrier and knocking over one of the marshals recovering the crashed Footwork. The marshal suffered a…
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