“He’s Still Here, Close to Us”: 10 Years After His Passing, Jules Bianchi’s Memory Lives On

The last Formula 1 driver to die as a result of a racing accident, Jules Bianchi remains a vivid presence in the collective memory — far beyond Nice, his hometown, and Brignoles, where he grew up.

This morning, tributes will once again bloom across all platforms — in the media and on social networks. A few words of love, accompanied by an image of his angelic face and radiant smile. So many heartfelt gestures to show that his loved ones, his friends, his fans, his fellow drivers, and even his past rivals — whether from karting circuits around the world or the star-studded tracks of Formula 1 — have not forgotten him.

Plunged into an irreversible coma after the tragic accident that should never have happened — at a corner during that harrowing 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, when he violently crashed into a recovery vehicle operating at the edge of the ultra-slippery Suzuka track, drenched by a typhoon — Jules Bianchi passed away nine months later, on Friday, July 17, 2015, in Nice, his hometown.

Jean Alesi: “I still feel like I saw him just yesterday”

Ten years ago. In the prime of his youth. At just twenty-five years old. Taken far too soon, when the future was still ahead of him. When he was fighting behind the wheel of the modest Marussia, marked with number 17, to keep pushing forward in his rising career. To go faster, farther, higher. In pursuit of the dream that became his the day he first turned a wheel as a child on the tarmac of La Siesta, in Antibes — just like a certain Alain Prost did, long ago.

“Jules — I still feel like I saw him just yesterday,” Jean Alesi recently told us. Alesi, president of the Paul Ricard Circuit, spoke from the paddock, just steps away from the “Allée Jules Bianchi,” a pathway named in honor of the driver who grew up not far from Le Castellet, in Brignoles, where his father Philippe ran the local karting track.

“It was always a joy to spend time with him. As captain of the French FFSA Circuit team, I followed him closely through his development — notably during his explosive debut in single-seaters” (French Formula Renault champion in his very first season, 2007, the first to do so since… Prost, in 1976).

“We immediately realized he would rise quickly to the top level. Especially once Nicolas Todt (his manager) decided to back him, and once the Ferrari Driver Academy opened its doors to him. The path was clear…”

Source Article : https://www.nicematin.com/auto/jules-dans-nos-coeurs-a-jamais-994478#