Would The Halo Have Saved Bianchi? How Did Jules Bianchi Lose Control?

By the FIA’s own admission, the Halo would not have saved Jules Bianchi, the only F1 driver to be killed in the 21st century – the first since Ayrton Senna’s death in 1994.

Towards the end of the Japanese Grand Prix the track conditions were very difficult, a weather system passing through the area ahead of a typhoon was causing very mixed conditions, and in the ‘S Curves’ section of the track there was a semi-dry racing line.

In the final part of the corner sequence, Dunlop Curve the line abruptly narrowed due to water draining on to the track and flowing along it.

Sauber driver Adrian Sutil hit this flowing water and lost control of his car, which hit the retaining wall on the exit of the corner. Sutil was unhurt but he was out of the race.

The standard procedure of recovering car in a position like this was carried out, a recovery vehicle or ‘snatch tractor’ was sent out to pick up the damaged Sauber and move it to a safe position behind the wall.

Marshals were also present trackside to clear up debris, repair the barrier and assist in the recovery of Sutil’s damaged car.

To protect the course workers and to warn other drivers of danger ahead double waved yellow flags were displayed. These flags mean that drivers must slow down and be prepared to stop if necessary. Overtaking is prohibited.

Jules Bianchi who had been just ahead of Sutil when the Sauber driver went off arrived back on the scene in his Marussia MR03 a lap later.

He was shown the double waved yellow flags because at this point Sutil’s car was in the process of being recovered.

For reasons that may never become clear, and have already been debated elsewhere, Bianchi did not slow down enough under the double waved yellow flags.

It seems clear that from this point onwards an accident was highly likely it could still have been avoided or its severity at least could have been reduced.

When the Marussia arrived on the same piece of water that caught out Sutil just over a minute and a half earlier, Bianchi lost control of the car, just like Sutil had done. He sustained severe injuries which eventually led to his death.