Bianchi Accident: No Rush for Safety Measures by Sochi Organizers

The world of Formula 1 was shaken by Jules Bianchi’s accident during the Japanese Grand Prix, which resulted in a serious brain injury for the Nice-born driver.

Quickly, voices were raised and controversies arose, questioning in turn the race marshals, the race direction, or the presence of a crane in the runoff area where Bianchi had his accident.

This weekend, however, Formula 1 is already back for the Russian Grand Prix. For this occasion, the organizers of the Sochi event, while they have already sought to learn the first lessons from the Suzuka race, have indicated that major reforms should not be launched without hindsight, while a FIA investigation is underway.

Richard Cregan, consultant for the race organizers, spoke on this subject: “We did everything that was asked, and a bit more in some areas,” he explained when asked how Sochi had reacted after last weekend.

« I think once again this highlights the fact that you can never be happy with the levels of safety you have. The most important thing is that we have learned from this and we must not jump to conclusions, that’s the key. I know it’s easy to say when it doesn’t affect you directly – and my thoughts go out to Jules and his family – but we must make sure that before this race there is nothing more we can do, » adds Cregan.

« For the longer term, we need to look at ways to continue improving the safety of the sport. When something like this happens, it focuses your mind on what can happen and how dangerous our sport can be. Our duty is to try to mitigate as many risks as possible and ensure that we do it in the safest way possible for everyone, especially for the drivers. »

For him, the security effort must never cease: « You can never let up on security, and you must be attentive to it all the time. You have to keep piecing together scenarios, with people saying ‘it can never happen’ – but anything can happen. You can never say never. If you put the right circumstances together, unfortunately, something like that can happen. »

On a practical level, Richard Cregan explains that Jules Bianchi’s accident highlighted the importance of the preparation of track marshals: « The focus has been on training and ensuring that the teams responsible for securing the cars, or the medical teams, are trained to the highest standards. »

The vehicles used in the recovery and lifting of single-seaters is an area for improvement: « I still believe that you never want vehicles on the track except for what’s supposed to be there, and that’s the race cars. Obviously, when you place something on the track, you introduce an element of danger with a solid vehicle. We need to think about how we can eliminate that, if possible. If cranes work, like in Monaco, we need to look into it. We can never stop making progress. »