Bianchi Accident: Villeneuve Wants Systematic Safety Cars in F1
Following the serious accident of Jules Bianchi during the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix, Jacques Villeneuve is calling for the implementation of a regulation that would require race management to deploy the safety car as soon as an accident occurs.
The 1997 Formula 1 World Champion and Canal + Grand Prix consultant, Jacques Villeneuve, has called for changes in safety following the Japanese Grand Prix, during which Jules Bianchi was seriously injured after going off the track.
While the leaders were on the 44th lap of the race and rain was pouring down again on Suzuka, the French driver went straight off at turn 7, at the precise location where a recovery vehicle was clearing Adrian Sutil’s Sauber, which had gone off the track at the same spot on the previous lap. The collision with the vehicle injured the Marussia driver in the head. Quickly attended to by the medical team and the circuit’s extraction team, he was evacuated unconscious to the Mie General Hospital, where he underwent neurosurgery.
For Jacques Villeneuve, the safety car should have been deployed as soon as Adrian Sutil’s incident occurred: « The rules need to be changed regarding the safety car. When I was racing, and afterwards, I’ve always said that every time there is an accident, there should be a safety car. There should be no room for judgment. If someone has to go out to move a car stuck on the track, it’s simple. Accident – safety car, and that’s it. It should have been like this for years. America has always done it. »
In the United States, major motorsports like IndyCar or NASCAR—most of whose races are run on ovals—neutralize the event as soon as an incident occurs on the track, whether it’s minor (debris, spin-out…) or major. Jacques Villeneuve is particularly familiar with how races operate across the Atlantic, having raced in IndyCar in the early 1990s, winning the title and the Indianapolis 500 in 1995, and having also raced in NASCAR on several occasions in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
For him, the races are never too neutralized: « The problem now is that as soon as the FIA sends out the safety car, all the media and fans complain, saying it ruins the race. So now, they hold back. It’s a lose-lose situation. Yes, sometimes it slows the race down a bit, but at least you avoid cases like [yesterday], and you avoid having a human make a decision. »
« Every time I was racing, if I had an accident, I was always afraid that another car would crash into me, » he recalls for Autosport. « It’s incredible that something like this hasn’t happened before. I think we’ve just been lucky until now. Quite often, people make mistakes where other cars have spun and they miss it by just a few centimeters. »
The accident of Jules Bianchi reminded of Michael Schumacher’s crash in 2003, during the Brazilian Grand Prix. The German driver, having spun at the exit of the Curva del Sol, ended up just a few meters away from a recovery vehicle that was removing Juan-Pablo Montoya’s Williams.
