Jules Bianchi

'Would be dead right now': F1's 'unacceptable' blunder explained and fatal lesson still not learned.

In the grand scheme of everything that happened on Sunday and in the context of Verstappen’s enormous points lead, it seems like a trivial matter, particularly given only two positions changed on the final lap. They’ll then go around one more time on the final lap, at the end of which the chequered flag will be shown and the race will be over. There was a delay of more than two hours between the race being red flagged and then resumed behind the safety car. Though the TV graphics were correct, the teams, drivers and media were all unclear about whether the race would be rewarded with full points or partial points. “We lost Jules eight years ago in similar conditions, with a crane on track or in the gravel,” Gasly said. But that can’t distract from the more egregious error of creating an unsafe circuit environment in already unsafe conditions. At the heart of that sorry episode was excess speed in wet conditions with external vehicles on track. “The most important thing is for the future,” Gasly said. When cars are bunched behind the safety car, they’re forced to drive at a safe speed and have the safety car driver guiding them out of harm’s way. But it’s yet another unnecessary and messy mistake from race control in conditions and on a day it needed to be better, whether to protect the safety of the drivers or protect the integrity of the championship. It ultimately lost him his life. But the point of contention isn’t whether the FIA followed the letter of the law; it’s that the truck was deployed to the track in borderline undriveable conditions and with one of the cars not yet in the safety car queue.