Bianchi brain injury severe, says family

Doctors at the hospital have waived normal restrictions on visiting hours, to allow them to see him at any time

I wonder how much red tape they had to get through for that one.

therougou: Probably not much, given that he's a rich celebrity, and more particularly given that this occurred at the Suzuka circuit in Japan and they want as little bad press as possible. For now the focus is on the man's medical condition, as it should be, but once things settle down a little the organizers are going to have absolute hell to pay for this, especially if the man dies or has the permanent injuries the medical experts speak of. You can't have on top of the obvious neglect in allowing the race to go on from 3:00 and then not having a safety car, etc., be exacerbated by limiting visiting hours to family with the international media watching every move, and so again, likely not much by way of red tape.

Smithinjapan-

Why would the safety car have been out? People were still pitting for intermediates when Bianchi went off.

As far as moving the race to an earlier time, that would have resulted in them racing in more rain, not less. The worst of the rain was between 2 and 3.

Why would the safety car have been out? People were still pitting for intermediates when Bianchi went off.

One car had already been dumped into the safety barriers and had not been cleared away. That rendered that immediate portion of the safety barriers unavailable to do their job. The removal of the wrecked car required a heavy lifter to position inside of the safety barriers, rendering even MORE of the safety barriers unable to do their job. And yet in the background of the video you still have a race official waving a green flag and you can hear the cars still on the track racing at top speed. With those obstacles between the track and the safety barriers, another car lost control in the turn and departed the track on the exact same angle as the first. We've all seen the result and yet you STILL ask why the safety car should have been out on the track?

Fadamor-

Generally speaking in F1 safety cars don't come out for cars in the run-off. Outside of Monaco I can't think of anywhere that would have handled that differently. Calling out the safety car for what was a standard off would not have been considered. Oh, and that call would have been made by the stewards, who have no affiliation with the track.

The presence of the jcb and the marshals was the reason for the double yellow in that sector. That, up to now, has been the procedure for an off like Sutil's.

Waved double yellow. Possible obstruction and marshals potentially on track. Reduce speed and prepare to stop. The tracking data shows Bianchi did not slow.

But that raises another debate - the increasing lack of driver response to caution flags. No one slowed. Bianchi' s car wasn't the fastest through the zone. His car wasn't set up for wet racing, and he was on worn intermediate tires. Speed and improper setup of the car are the two overriding factors at play here.

As far as the green flag, in formula 1 the track is broken into sections. The double yellow flag covered the zone heading into the corner to just past the accident scene. The green flag signifies the START of the next zone. Once past the green flag, normal racing resumes. It has no bearing on the accident, because Bianchi would not see it until he cleared the scene.

When the stewards start assessing drive-through penalties for speeding through a double yellow flag zone, the problem will be solved. Until then, there should be a safety car any time there are vehicles other than the competitors on the track.

It's very severe crash and injury. I can see it from the video. I hope Bianchi will be fully recovered from the his injury.

Former world champion Alain Prost on Tuesday said the removal truck should never have been there. “The entry of this crane (onto the circuit) without the safety car is totally unacceptable. It’s a real mistake that should not be repeated,” he said,

I don't know who was at the fault. Driver must be slow down when he saw double Yellow Flags. If the car was driving speed at 100km/hr and then I don't think Safety Car will need it. In the Video, Bianchi's car was speeding like the rocket. So there's no point to playing blame game at the moment. We will know after thoroughly investigation by authority.

To be honest, once I saw the video of the crash that was made by a spectator I was surprised he survived the crash at all. He went completely under the crane at a high speed.

I hope he is able to recover well enough to have at least some semblance of a normal life.

As far as the finger pointing goes - why do that now? Let's see the results of the incident investigation before we say who was at fault, and what factors led to the accident.