Gary Hartstein has said this isn't true re: pressure changes, but has confirmed that the helicopter was clear to take off - it was probably because an ambulance gave them more prep time that they took that route. EDIT: BBC live text is wrapping up. Not surprised really given they can't actually *do* anything until we hear more from the hospital.
Without knowing when those discussions took place it's hard to say. For sure if they were within the last 24/48hrs then it's a very tricky call. But what with there being talk of holding the race Saturday afternoon, perhaps the talks took place earlier? I don't know how long this typhoon has been on the radar, but with 4-5 days notice I would have thought there would have been potential to shift the race a bit. Completely agree about late afternoon starts though. There's a 4 hour window for completing grand prix, so you'd think races should be forced to start early enough that the full 4 hours is usable. It doesn't seem right that the race time was 1hr50 and we were finishing in gloom because of a slightly delayed start.
It's a funny one really. On one hand he's incredibly knowledgeable about F1 Safety, but he's also very bitter about the manner of his dismissal and loves to stick the knife into the FIA. Jules' father has confirmed on French TV that Bianchi is currently in a critical state and being operated on.
Right before the race started he was bemoaning the chaos surrounding the start procedure, which I think he might look back on with regret now. But otherwise he's mostly just been reporting the facts (e.g. the helicopter regulations) The only slightly questionable statement he's made was telling everyone that no champagne on the podium was his code for 'serious danger', which I think sparked a fair bit of panic... but I think that was more due to his wording, which was clearly affected by the emotion of the situation.
Yeah it's impossible to predict the weather though. If they'd moved it to Saturday and then Sunday had turned out dry they'd have been criticised for overreacting, especially by people who'd bought tickets for the Sunday and were perhaps unable to be present for the race on the Saturday. It would've been quite a challenge to condense an entire grand prix weekend into just Friday and Saturday as well. Would they have had time for all three practice sessions still, presumably some of the support races would've been scrapped. It was the right call not to meddle with things in my opinion. And the conditions were still driveable in the end. There were only two crashes all race, it just happened that they were at exactly the same place within a short time of each other.
Lee McKenzie ‏@LeeMcKenzieTV 3m3 minutes ago The FIA say CT scans show that Jules Bianchi has suffered a severe head injury. He's in surgery and will then be moved to intensive care
That's wonderful. Any of them could've helped their team get ready for Sochi, but they give their support in the best possible way to the one guy that truly needs it more than ever. Respect to all of them
Just thought I would pop in to say I hope Bianchi makes a full recovery, the grid would be a sadder place without him and his talent
Well he is the next big thing. We are all waiting for him to get his Ferrari boots on so we can see him compete properly. Lets hope he fixes up quickly.
At the very least from one or two pictures I've seen, his helmet still seems relatively intact. It isn't much but it's something at least.
This site says the operation is complete and Jules is no longer on life support. http://www.lequipe.fr/info-continue/bianchi/97363
From what I'm hearing L'Equipe are apparently very reliable (I don't know that much about them myself) and were the first people to report on him having the surgery in the first place. Granted I'll still wait for someone like Autosport to confirm it in any case.
No no I'm not doubting you , hope it'd true . It just seems sudden , but then he is a French driver and it's a French paper maybe they had someone close to the fia press .
Yeah the operation itself seems fairly quick - but then again they're in Japan. Probably means they've been able to control any major bleeding or such if true.
