{"id":4859,"date":"2025-07-17T12:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/4859\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T12:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:47:12","slug":"jules-bianchis-breakthrough-f1-season-in-his-own-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/4859\/","title":{"rendered":"Jules Bianchi\u2019s breakthrough F1 season\u00a0\u2013 in his own words"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some people think of Marseille as bandit country. There\u2019s some justification for this. As a port it has many connections\u2026 some shady.<\/p>\n

Out in the bay lies the ancient French equivalent of Alcatraz, the Chateau d\u2019If, where the fictional Count of Monte Cristo was incarcerated.<\/p>\n

A tangled knot of streets lead away from the famous Vieux Port, the natural harbour where Greek seafarers first landed nearly 3,000 years ago. Buildings butt up edgily against one another, forming dark alleys that lead to nowhere. The facades are a mixture of tatty, faded glamour and nonchalant decay, offset here and there by new developments that exude a kind of defiant optimism.<\/p>\n

In the opening sequence of The French Connection, a detective tailing a suspect takes coffee at a Marseille quayside cafe \u2013 a vista now dominated by a huge mirror-finish canopy, designed by Sir Norman Foster \u2013 then meanders up an increasingly narrow web of cobbled streets to the seedy Le Panier district, where he\u2019s gunned down in the entrance to his own home.<\/p>\n

No wonder the city has become the go-to location for film-makers looking to sketch an instant portrait of Euro-grittiness and danger. But this is also the place that Marussia F1 rookie Jules Bianchi<\/a> calls his home-from-home. While he officially resides in Switzerland, he enjoys spending time here, on the coast of the region where he grew up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s like anywhere, any big city,\u201d says Bianchi, with just the tiniest hint of defensiveness. \u201cThere are risky places where you don\u2019t want to go. But if you were to go to London\u2026 I don\u2019t know where, but there must be some areas there you wouldn\u2019t want to visit. You hear about things that happen here, but I\u2019ve never actually seen anything violent or shocking. Maybe I\u2019ve just been lucky but, for the moment, I haven\u2019t seen anything like that\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jules <\/p>\n

Jules Bianchi, Marussia<\/p>\n

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

We\u2019re lunching in the welcome shade of the Radisson Blu hotel\u2019s restaurant terrace, a coolly modern but discreet quayside building that doesn\u2019t try to stand out from the older ones around it. One minute you\u2019re skipping over the open gutter and dodging past the plastic chairs of an unconvincing \u2018Irish\u2019 pub, stealing a quick glance up a dark alleyway lit only by the garish neon sign of a tattoo parlour, then suddenly you\u2019re in 2013 European City Of Culture Marseille, all clean glass and fresh paint.<\/p>\n

A polite but firm wall of pot plants and chrome tubes keeps itinerants and tat-vendors at bay.<\/p>\n

Bianchi, 24, was born in Nice but his family then moved to Gap, the alpine<\/a> commune where Rui Costa won the 16th stage of this year\u2019s centennial Tour de France, before settling in nearby Brignoles when Jules was 12. Papa Bianchi ran the local kart track.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like Monaco because I have friends there. And my manager [Nicolas Todt] has a house in Switzerland, so it\u2019s convenient for me to live there. But I also like it here,\u201d Jules explains. \u201cI grew up in many places, but always in this area [Provence] \u2013 and it\u2019s nice, you know? You have the sea, and the mountains aren\u2019t far away: you have everything you need to have fun. It\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather like his spiritual home, Jules has a reputation for danger that he\u2019s trying to shake off. Canvas opinion from those he\u2019s worked with in the junior formulae, and the feedback is pretty consistent: Jules is a smart, fun, easy-going and grounded guy with no pretensions. Quick, too.<\/p>\n

Under the wing of Nicolas Todt\u2019s All Road Management, he won the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2009 and was signed up by the Ferrari<\/a> Driver Academy. Rumour had it that he\u2019d be a shoo-in to replace Felipe Massa<\/a> at Ferrari before too long, but once in GP2 he got his elbows out rather too frequently and all too soon he\u2019d become last year\u2019s \u2018Next Big Thing\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cJules is quick,\u201d one GP2 insider told F1 Racing, \u201cbut he doesn\u2019t look in his mirrors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jules <\/p>\n

Jules Bianchi, ART Grand Prix<\/p>\n

Photo by: GP2 Media Service<\/p>\n

In the first of the two GP2 races supporting the 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix, Jules had an innocuous-looking accident that could have ended his career. Sweeping exuberantly around the outside at the first corner, he tapped the rear wing of Giacomo Ricci, then bravely kept his foot on the throttle while gathering the resulting twitch. His trajectory took him over the concrete run-off, where his bravura on the loud pedal was rewarded with a sharp spin back onto the track, into the face of coming traffic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t that bad,\u201d he says. \u201cI broke one vertebra and another one was \u2013 how do you say \u2013 \u2018scratched\u2019? I had an operation in Hungary and after three weeks we went to Spa and I drove again, so I didn\u2019t lose any opportunities to score apart from in Hungary [having crashed out of the first race, he couldn\u2019t start the second].<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t harm my season though, because I still finished third in the championship, and it was my first year in GP2.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good season. After that,\u201d he pauses meditatively and rearranges his salad with his fork. \u201cWell, it doesn\u2019t change anything really, the fact I had this crash. I haven\u2019t had any more operations and I don\u2019t have any ongoing problems with my back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jules <\/p>\n

Jules Bianchi, Marussia<\/p>\n

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

But he did have ongoing problems with his career prospects. Pastor Maldonado<\/a> (also managed by Nicolas Todt) and Sergio Perez<\/a> finished ahead of him in 2010 and made the leap to F1, while Jules stayed for a second season of GP2, which also resulted in third place. It wasn\u2019t great, but it could have been worse: by Valencia, the fourth of nine race weekends, he\u2019d managed just one podium finish and three retirements. He realised something had to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, for sure I have improved,\u201d he sighs. \u201cThere is always room for improvement. That first year in GP2, I had just won in Formula 3 the previous year and I wanted to win again. And actually it\u2019s not as easy as that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just too focused on getting the victory. I was quick over a single lap, quick in the races all the time, but I was making mistakes and crashing. The second year, I started in the same way and it was wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made mistakes and crashed again. At one point I was P15 in the championship. It was my second year of racing in GP2, so it was pretty bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, I completely changed my mind and my way of driving in races. I thought much more about points and less about victory \u2013 even though I\u2019d always want to win, of course. I did a lot of work with Ferrari on the psychological side and that was useful. It got a lot better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a good end to the season and finished third in the championship. And I had a good year in World Series [by Renault] in 2012. Maybe some people still think I\u2019m not sure in the races, but I\u2019ve changed. I\u2019ve shown I can be consistent and score points. It\u2019s not an issue anymore; I\u2019ve grown up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Jules, the second Ferrari seat didn\u2019t fall vacant at that point. Massa (also managed by Nicolas Todt) held on to his place \u2013 partly through merit, partly because the team didn\u2019t want to provoke its lead driver\u2019s ire by installing a young hotshot in the number two spot. There were talks with Mark Webber<\/a> that ultimately came to nothing.<\/p>\n

\"Jean <\/p>\n

Jean Todt, President, FIA, with his son Nicolas Todt<\/p>\n

Photo by: Charles Coates \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Jules rehabilitated his career throughout 2012 with a strong campaign in World Series by Renault \u2013 anyone who has to do more than two years of GP2 is pretty much a busted flush so far as F1 bigwigs are concerned, unless they come loaded with sponsorship \u2013 and nine F1 practice outings as Force India\u2019s third driver.<\/p>\n

Even before then he\u2019d been quietly preparing for his F1 shot, thanks to the Ferrari Driver Academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started with Ferrari at the end of 2009, after winning my title in Formula 3, but it was 2010 when we really started to work together. I was able to do a lot of testing in the two-year-old car, and that has been really valuable because of the testing restrictions. It\u2019s really difficult for a young driver to get the experience, to learn how to drive a Formula 1 car. Even if you\u2019re doing GP2 or World Series, it\u2019s not the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it was a great help for me to have this opportunity. I\u2019ve worked a lot on the simulator, too, and done mental and physical training with them. It\u2019s a big work together, yeah.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to go a lot more. Last year, when I was the third driver for Force India, I couldn\u2019t go to their factory and use their simulator because I was doing the Ferrari simulator. And this year I\u2019m doing less because of my involvement with Marussia, which is the focus of most of my time. It\u2019s important to work with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the beginning of 2013 his career hung in the balance once more. Force India had performed a rigorous audit of Bianchi\u2019s and Adrian Sutil<\/a>\u2019s previous form as a means of forecasting which driver would do the better job in a race seat in 2013. The team was trapped: having finished well in 2012 it needed to maintain its position in the pecking order, so as to rake in a decent share of the TV money at season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

\"Jules <\/p>\n

Jules Bianchi, Force India VJM05<\/p>\n

Photo by: Charles Coates \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

Given the well-publicised financial pressures elsewhere in team owner Vijay Mallya\u2019s empire, self-sufficiency was key. The rookie\u2019s reputation for wildness went before him, and the experienced Sutil got the nod.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were waiting for an answer from them,\u201d says Jules, \u201cand it came really late \u2013 and it was the wrong answer for us! It was a difficult moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned on the Wednesday before the final pre-season test, then on the Thursday Ferrari rang to tell me to go to Barcelona. Maybe there would be a chance with another team. But I didn\u2019t know anything, so I didn\u2019t have the chance to think about what I was going to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, even though I\u2019m still young, when you\u2019ve been the third driver with one team, and then they say no to you for a race seat, and you don\u2019t even have the opportunity to be the third driver again, it\u2019s not really useful. I truly believe Formula 1 would have been finished for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really lucky to have been given this opportunity with Marussia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jules <\/p>\n

Jules Bianchi, Marussia MR02 Cosworth<\/p>\n

Photo by: Andy Hone\/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Armed with a much-improved Marussia, Jules has rammed home the point that he\u2019s now a safe pair of hands, having retired from only two rounds (at the time of writing, post-Singapore) this year, both times through mechanical failure rather than driver brain fade. And while no one driving for this under-resourced team could expect to be challenging for podiums, there are signs that expectations are being re-mapped.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a different way to approach a race,\u201d he says. \u201cI know I won\u2019t be going for a podium or maybe not even Q2 \u2013 we managed it in Spa but that\u2019s because the conditions were special, you know? So I have different targets now. We want to beat Caterham and at the moment that\u2019s looking like a realistic objective. It\u2019s a victory when we\u2019re ahead of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important, not just because of the money [that comes from a higher placing in the constructors\u2019 championship], but also to show a clear improvement, for the people at the factory who have been working so hard. We have to push to improve our performance. We need to be in Q2 more often and lead more in the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was that a coded message? Marussia has slipped back on relative pace as teams around it find greater development gains. And Jules will face an increasing level of scrutiny as the team builds its relationship with Ferrari, using a Maranello drivetrain from 2014 onwards.<\/p>\n

\"Jules <\/p>\n

Jules Bianchi, Marussia MR02 Cosworth<\/p>\n

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

For now, the chance to slip into Massa\u2019s recently vacated seat may have receded, following news of Kimi Raikkonen<\/a>\u2019s return to the Scuderia. But the Finn has been signed on a one-year contract only, with an option for 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel any pressure,\u201d says Jules. \u201cThis is my first year in Formula 1 and I want to stay as long as possible, so I don\u2019t want to put too much pressure on myself. I have time. I\u2019m young. And I can improve. I want to take things step by step, I\u2019m happy at Marussia and I want to do the best for them. I don\u2019t see why I should leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we part company we go our separate ways on foot, neither of us hailing a taxi. Well, you\u2019ve seen the film\u2026<\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n

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