F1. “We carry that responsibility”: A mechanic of Jules Bianchi speaks out 10 years after his death
A little over ten years ago, on July 17, 2015, Jules Bianchi passed away from the injuries he sustained in the terrible accident he suffered during the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix. A mechanic for the French driver at the time, Calum Nicholas reflected on that trauma on Kristen Holmes’ podcast The Line.
It is a tragedy that still haunts the world of Formula 1. On October 5, 2014, Jules Bianchi, a young 25-year-old French driver, was involved in a horrific accident during the Japanese Grand Prix, which was held in torrential rain. While the safety car was on track following the deployment of a recovery vehicle to remove Adrian Sutil’s crashed car, Bianchi in turn lost control of his car, aquaplaning and sliding directly into the recovery vehicle, suffering severe head injuries.
Placed in a coma, the French driver, a Ferrari protégé, died from his injuries nine months later, on July 17, 2015, surrounded by his family in Nice. More than ten years later, the wound remains open for his former Marussia mechanics. Now a Red Bull ambassador after having worked on Max Verstappen’s car for several seasons, Calum Nicholas revisited that tragic day on Kristen Holmes’ podcast The Line.
“Two days after the accident, you’re already back in the garage”
“There is an acceptance that there is always that risk when you do something like motor racing. It was something difficult to swallow. It always feels unfair, and for me, at 22 or 23 at the time, it was the fact that I had built a race car, that a guy got in it, and that he lost his life,” the former mechanic explains. “I know there was no issue with the car, there was no issue with what I did. But in the end, my technical team and I carry that kind of responsibility, and I think at just over twenty years old, it was difficult to face at that time.”
It was an especially complicated period, all the more so because the Formula 1 carousel kept turning, with a race in Russia the following weekend. “You didn’t even have time to process what had happened, to take a moment… Straight on to the next race,” Calum Nicholas continues. “Two days after the accident, you’re already back in the garage trying to rebuild a car. You had no time at all to take it in, to reflect on everything. That was probably one of the hardest aspects.”
