Good news at long last. Saw his name and immediately thought the worst until I read on. It's all been said now so I'll keep on hoping like all of us.
Yes, I was wondering whether there would ever be good news on Jules. Sois fort, mon brave : bon courage !
Very encouraging news of positive progress but, as you say, a long way to go yet. I hope that he is, somehow, aware that he is back home in France and that it will help him with the healing process. Our thoughts continue to be with Jules and his family.
I just read about the tragic death of cricketer Philip Hughes and it made me think immediately of Jules. I never thought I'd think of Jules as fortunate following his accident but between a cricket ball and a JCB, suddenly his survival seems all the more remarkable. RIP, Philip Hughes.
I was thinking this too. Its real testament to the safety in F1. And its a real tragedy when these sports stars get hurt. But we can only learn from these incidents. With the cricket helmet though Im quite surprised with the lack of at least padding in that area. but it wasnt that long ago when these helmets were made mandatory. Even in schools!!
I had assumed he wasn't wearing a hemlet, that makes the incident even more tragic when you think of the chances of a ball striking him on an area of his head and neck that would not have had some form of protection from the helmet. Just shows that no sport is without its risk, and no matter how hard everyone tries, nothing can ever be made 100% safe.
Yes, it does put a different slant on the criticisms people were making about safety after Jules' accident. I'm an ignoramus regarding cricket but I presume that this hasn't happened before otherwise the protection would already have been in place.
The Australian cricket team doctor is quoted as saying that a "vertebral artery dissection" caused by a cricket ball has happened only once before, but not when or where, and that there are only around 100 recorded cases altogether. I guess this underlines the incredible bad luck in this tragedy, but also how unlikely it is to happen again and the difficulty in protecting against all possible serious injury.
Many years ago, a schoolteacher friend of the family died on the pitch after being struck by a cricket ball. He wasn't wearing a helmet but it would have made no difference: he was hit on the chest… As has been said, there's an element of risk in virtually all sport – with the possible exception of chess(?). Back to F1. Despite recent incidents, when considering the nature of motorsport, F1's safety record since Ratzenberger and Senna has been truly astonishing. Massa's spring was a freak accident from which he bounced back (sic). Freaks aside, this leaves us with just one incident in 20 years where F1 might be perceived as having made avoidable oversights: the procedures and decisions which may have contributed to such a devastating blow to Bianchi. Sickening as it might be, that 20 year record is something to be proud of. Statistically it 'proves' that for this period F1 is about as safe as driving on public roads, and far safer than parachuting (for instance).
Re: the risks of chess: http://en.chessbase.com/post/deaths-at-the-chess-olympiad Ashley Giles in reference to a leading cricket helmet manufacturer, which suggests the perception of the safety of F1: "Masuri completely redesigned their number one helmet in the last 12 to 18 months, which is now the Formula 1 of cricket helmets."
In reality it's impossible to make F1 truly safe. Although it's safer than it's ever been, there's always the chance of something going wrong, be that something entering the cockpit or just a simple human error of judgement in proceedings. This is the essence of an accident, it's not always apparent until after the event. I always have a bit of a struggle with making F1 safer and safer though. I certainly don't want to watch drivers getting hurt, but when drivers were at risk, they were somehow more exciting. Wheel to wheel racing was more of a danger and they almost seemed like gladiators. (Not Hunter, Wolf, Jet and the crew. ) I know it's not a popular way of thinking, but now cars can fly off on to run off with no consequence and rejoin with little to no loss and it just seems to remove a bit of the old thrill. I know things are rightly better now, but I do miss that.
I think the problem is separating the risk to the driver from the risk of retirement from the race. I'd love F1 to be 100% safe, but equally I want to see drivers punished in some way for making mistakes. Gravel trap were great for the second point, less so the first. I'm surprised the solutions used at Paul Ricard haven't been more widely deployed, but I don't know if I'm missing some detail about those.
