Latest F1 news in brief

Todt says Schumacher, shown here with wife Corinna back when he drove for Ferrari, is recovering and can live a normal life someday

F1 waiting on official news about Bianchi
Questions explode as Bianchi crash video emerges
Bianchi would have driven third Ferrari – Montezemolo
Schumacher 'can live normal life again' – Todt
Red Bull denies departing Vettel now 'number 2'
Bianchi's Crash Raises Questions About Formula One Safety Measures
Cruel Irony
Massa was screaming to stop race earlier

F1 waiting on official news about Bianchi
(GMM) The worried world of F1 is still waiting for more news about Jules Bianchi.

While protagonists argue about the rights and wrongs of his terrifying collision with a recovery vehicle on Sunday, the talented 25-year-old remains critically ill in the Mie hospital about 15 kilometers from Suzuka.

Livio Oricchio, the respected correspondent for Universo, claims Marussia telemetry shows Bianchi struck the vehicle at a speed of 203 kilometers per hour.

"The situation is really serious. Very serious but stable," FIA spokesman Matteo Bonciani said at the hospital late on Monday when asked about Bianchi's condition, according to France's RMC.

"I am doing this update on behalf of the family," he added.

Bianchi is managed by Nicolas Todt, the son of FIA president Jean Todt whose doctor friend professor Gerard Saillant is now en route from Paris to Japan.

Arriving at the hospital on Monday was Bianchi's parents.

"Tomorrow," Bonciani added, "the family will see all the doctors and have all the information."

With official information scant, it is believed Bianchi is lying in intensive care in an artificial coma after surgery for subdural hematoma.

It is also believed the Marussia driver is attached to an artificial respirator.

Germany's Welt newspaper claims Marussia chiefs John Booth and Graeme Lowdon both cancelled their scheduled flights to Sochi to remain in Yokkaichi with Bianchi.

Questions explode as Bianchi crash video emerges
(GMM) As Jules Bianchi lies critically ill in a Japanese hospital, grave questions are being asked about the circumstances surrounding his terrifying collision with a recovery vehicle on Sunday.

Alain Prost, the F1 legend and quadruple world champion, told Europe 1 radio it is clear "serious misconduct" took place as the light faded and the rain intensified towards the end of the typhoon-affected Japanese grand prix.

"There was an error, that is clear," said the Frenchman. "Whose? I still have doubts.

"Was it the direction of the race or the officials who were at the corner?"

FOM, the Bernie Ecclestone-run company controlling the sport's commercial rights, has suppressed the release of any official video footage of the crash.

"I saw images that I will never forget," Adrian Sutil, who was at the scene as Bianchi struck the vehicle and also when the French driver was extricated, is quoted by Switzerland's Blick newspaper.

Late on Monday, terrifying amateur footage of the incident emerged, although FOM has been working busily to have copies quickly removed from social media sites.

20minutes.fr claims the video was shot by Phillip Dabrowiecki, a spectator in the grandstands.

"FOM has not contacted me, but I think they are trying to bury the video because it shows all the mistakes," he said.

"I shared the video for the truth to be shown to all F1 fans."

One of the thousands to watch the video is Prost himself, who said he was alarmed to see that a marshal right next to the incident was waving a green flag.

"It should have been at least a hundred meters away," he insisted.

Indeed, the green flag being waved from the marshal tower just after the incident scene is causing a great deal of controversy after the amateur footage emerged.

But former driver Emanuele Pirro, who also serves as a driver steward for the FIA, says that it is "perfectly regular" for green flags to be waving at the very next marshal post after a caution zone — even if this is just a meter away.

He told Autosprint that those who say otherwise are "mistaken".

Nonetheless, British newspapers report that the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone have ordered an urgent investigation into the circumstances of Bianchi's life-threatening crash.

The FIA confirmed that, and Ecclestone told The Times: "Things happen and we have to find out the cause."

Former FIA president Max Mosley described Sunday's events as a "freak accident".

"I can't really fault any of the people involved, the marshals or the race director or any of those people," he is quoted by Britain's Sky.

"For some reason the driver didn't see the yellow flags. It would appear he didn't slow down as perhaps he should have done, but it's certainly the case that the yellow flags were deployed."

Others also think it was simply a tragic accident. Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko told Servus TV on Monday that there was "no specific reason why driving was impossible" at the time of the crash.

Williams driver Valtteri Bottas also played down concerns about the fading light, telling Auto Motor und Sport that he could "see the flags and there was also the flashing light" in his cockpit.

The driver steward on duty at Suzuka was Mika Salo, and he suggested that Bianchi was simply driving too quickly in the yellow flag zone.

"No car should go out of control in that situation," he is quoted by the Finnish broadcaster MTV3. "I saw everything. There was way too much momentum."

Salo also backed Charlie Whiting's decision not to bring out the safety car.

"It was the right decision," he said. "At the corner was a single accident, the driver (Adrian Sutil) did not need help so there was no need to release the safety car.

"This was a standard situation."

Salo also played down claims the race should have been stopped for the intensifying rain.

"Some of the drivers had switched again to heavy rain tires, but some were staying on worn intermediates," he said.

Red Bull's Marko described what happened as "a chain of very, very unfortunate circumstances".

"After the safety car start, it was then a normal wet race," said the Austrian.

"When the accident happened, Sebastian (Vettel) did not request extreme wet tires so it was justified for the race to go to the end," Marko added.

Derek Warwick, another former driver and sometime FIA steward, told the Guardian: "Let's not get too carried away, it was a one-off.

"You will always have these extraordinary situations and we have to be careful not to make kneejerk responses to them," he told the Guardian.

Warwick said one kneejerk response would be a rule change that every time a recovery vehicle is on track, the safety car should be deployed.

"But I think it's better to let people like Charlie and his team make the decision. Will he get it right every time? Probably not, but my vote will always be for the professionals to make the decision at the time," he added.

This is precisely where opinions are starkly and emotionally split up and down the paddock.

Galvao Bueno, the influential lead commentator for Brazil's Globo, described Sunday at Suzuka as "the biggest mistake I've seen in 40 years in formula one".

"I have no fear of speaking despite having a very good personal relationship with Charlie Whiting," he insisted.

"This was a race that had no condition to be run. I spoke with Felipe Massa and he said he saw nothing — if it looks dark on TV it's because it's dark as hell.

"This could have been avoided."

FIA president Jean Todt will attend this weekend's Russian grand prix.

Bianchi would have driven third Ferrari – Montezemolo
(GMM) Jules Bianchi was on course for a future wearing Ferrari red — and perhaps as soon as 2015.

That is the claim of outgoing Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, who told Italian media at the Genoa Boat Show on Monday that he was "very sad" to know the team's leading 'academy' driver is now fighting for his life in Japan.

"This boy was born with us, and we thought of him as our driver of the future," Montezemolo is quoted as saying.

Frenchman Bianchi was a Ferrari-powered Marussia driver when he tragically ploughed into a recovery vehicle during the rain-affected Japanese grand prix.

But Montezemolo said he had a definite future at Maranello.

"If – as I think we will have to – we line up with three cars next year, we thought of him for the third car and he would have been perfect for the coming years," he revealed.

"I just hope we have some good news soon.

"Unfortunately, we always talk about these things with the benefit of hindsight, but we do have to think of what happened if something did not work at Suzuka. If there was something wrong we have to change," said Montezemolo.

"Definitely it was a very special race with little visibility at 3 in the afternoon and plenty of water. We have also had other races in these conditions and nothing happened.

"The important thing is to understand the reason and prevent it from happening again," he added.

Schumacher 'can live normal life again' – Todt
(GMM) Jean Todt has delivered perhaps the most promising news about Michael Schumacher's condition since the F1 legend's fateful skiing fall last December.

The pair became close friends at Ferrari last decade as the Italian team dominated formula one.

Since then, 45-year-old Schumacher has retired and Frenchman Todt is now FIA president, but they remained close friends.

Todt has visited the Schumacher family since the seven time world champion returned to his home in Switzerland after months in hospital and rehabilitation.

Precious little is known about Schumacher's health condition, but Todt has reportedly now delivered an upbeat report to the Belgian broadcaster RTL.

"We may assume that Schumacher can live a relatively normal life within a short period of time," said the FIA president.

"What we can say is that he will probably never again drive a formula one car."

RTL said Todt, 68, visited Schumacher at his home on the shore of Lake Geneva in the week before the Japanese grand prix.

"He fights. His condition improves, which is very important," said Todt, "as is the fact that he is now home with his family."

Red Bull denies departing Vettel now 'number 2'
(GMM) Sebastian Vettel will not be marginalized by Red Bull despite shocking the team with his sudden departure news last week in Japan.

That is the claim of team chief Dr Helmut Marko, who is already fending off claims the Ferrari-bound German received second-rate treatment during the Suzuka race.

Before his surprise news last Saturday, Red Bull had insisted reigning quadruple world champion Vettel would not be the victim of 'team orders' to support his title-contending teammate Daniel Ricciardo in the last races of 2014.

But then came Friday.

"There were some signs already," Marko told Austrian Servus TV on Monday. "He is sorry that it happened completely without warning, but it did not surprise me.

"I approached Sebastian on Friday at Suzuka because I noticed that something was wrong," he revealed. "We then had dinner and he told me that he will leave us."

Marko insists he is "still friends" with Vettel, but also true is that the 27-year-old triggered an escape clause in his contract at the eleventh hour.

Germany's Auto Bild reported that the first sign of Vettel's new role as the departing 'number 2' driver is the fact his pit strategy in Japan seemed to disadvantage him compared with Ricciardo.

"That's not true!" Marko exclaimed.

"We asked Sebastian if he wanted to come in for new tires for the final sprint, and he wanted to take the risk.

"We had assumed that he could even have a crack at Rosberg with the new tires, but this has nothing to do with discrimination! With us there are no team orders.

"We remain fair and sportsmanlike, which is our philosophy," he insisted.

Marko also explained why Fernando Alonso was never considered as Vettel's replacement for 2015. Red Bull has elected instead to promote the Toro Rosso rookie Daniil Kvyat.

"Alonso would have been the safest card to play," the Austrian told Auto Motor und Sport, "but that does not fit with Red Bull.

"It would make our junior program absurd."

Australian Ricciardo also backed Russian Kvyat's promotion.

"Alonso might have been the logical choice," he agreed, "but Red Bull took a similar risk with me and it paid off.

"Kvyat is also the cheaper solution," Ricciardo grinned, "so hopefully Red Bull puts the saved money into the car."

Bianchi's Crash Raises Questions About Formula One Safety Measures
Jules Bianchi’s life-threatening crash at the Japanese Grand Prix "has once again highlighted that Formula One can be a very dangerous sport, despite 20 years passing since the death of a driver at a race weekend," according to Jack De Menezes of the London INDEPENDENT.

Not since '94 has the sport been clouded by tragedy, "when the sad passing of both Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger saw motorsport hit one of its most haunting weekends in its history at the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola."

Unfortunately, Bianchi’s accident where he hit a recovery vehicle that was attending the crash site of Adrian Sutil’s Sauber "has exposed what a dangerous proposition it can be to drive these thoroughbred racing cars at speeds in excess of 200mph." However, this time we’re not looking at the safety of the cars — although "that will inevitably come into question over the next few weeks."

Instead, we are looking at something "much simpler than the complicated designs of a Formula One car." We are looking at a decision of when to start the race, "and the proposition of a 25-year-old man losing his life because of the wrong decision is truly unacceptable." Throughout the week leading up to Sunday’s race at Suzuka, "the talk of the paddock was whether Typhoon Phanfone was going to have an impact on the afternoon start — scheduled for 3pm local time."

Now answer me this: "can you drive an F1 car in typhoon conditions?" There is "only one answer." By simply moving the race forward to 11am as proposed by the FIA, the race "would have missed the brunt of the bad weather." Yet the race organizers and circuit owners Honda "refused — twice — to budge on their start time, believing that a change would have a serious impact on the number of fans both at the track for the start and watching worldwide."

The fact that Honda, one of the leading car manufacturers in the world, which plans on returning to F1 next year, "would put financial and political gain ahead of the safety of any man is unacceptable." The formula "has widely been criticized as being run for money and politics rather than racing purposes for many years now, but the refusal to change the timing of the race and subsequently attempt to run it as a major storm hit the Far East is a new low."

Things "must change if the sport is to move forward." Allowing a simple decision such as moving the start time "would be a minuscule change compared to those that have been implemented since 1994."

If the situation was that it required Bianchi’s accident to happen before the influence of power in F1 was questioned, "then the sport is in a much worse place than first thought." Independent

Cruel Irony
In London, Kevin Eason wrote it "seems the cruelest of ironies to befall Formula One."

A year ago, the sport "was preparing for the Japanese Grand Prix when news filtered into the Suzuka paddock that MarÃa de Villota had been found dead in her hotel bedroom in Spain." The finger of suspicion "pointed straight at the injuries she suffered when she drove a Marussia car into a stationary lorry at a test session in 2012 at Duxford Aerodrome." And now this, Bianchi "is fighting for his life in hospital" after a crash in a Marussia car almost on the anniversary of De Villota’s death. A pall "hangs over Suzuka."

There "is no blame attached to Marussia, as honest a bunch of racers as exist in F1, but the agony of two appalling accidents in two years will scar the team deeply." Marussia Sporting Dir Graeme Lowdon was at Bianchi’s bedside late Sunday night "awaiting the outcome of surgery on the 25-year-old’s severe head injuries."

When Lowdon returns to his team, he "will be charged with lifting spirits and morale to face another harsh twist in this story: the Russian Grand Prix — Marussia’s home race and the inaugural race on Russian soil — is next weekend."

As many as 70,000 fans "will turn out to watch the car in Russian red, perhaps not knowing or understanding that the team have been robbed of their young star, the driver who achieved the seemingly impossible at Monaco this season."

That was where he drove to ninth place "and earned the first points for a hard-up team who had signally failed to get on the scoreboard in four seasons and seemed to exist on financial fresh air." That one result, though, "could yet be worth a bonus" of about $40M for the team if it hangs on to ninth place in the constructors’ table this season.

It "has become too easy to forget that driving at 200mph is dangerous." We "have seen so many drivers clamber from the wreckage, shake themselves down and start all over again that they appear indestructible."

In the 20 years since Ayrton Senna died at Imola, "there has not been a driver fatality in F1." Safety — of cars and circuits — "has improved by leaps and bounds and far outstrips any other form of motor racing." It is a fact of single-seater racing that the only vulnerable part of the body is the head and this accident "will quicken the debate over whether cockpits should be designed into future F1 cars." London Times

Massa was screaming top stop race earlier
The BBC reported Williams driver Felipe Massa said he was "screaming" his concerns about the conditions at the Japanese Grand Prix before Jules Bianchi suffered a severe head injury in a crash.

Massa, the last driver to have a serious injury in F1, said, "I'm worried."

He added, "I was already screaming on the radio five laps before the safety car that there was too much water on the track."

Massa, who suffered a fractured skull during qualifying for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix when a spring from another car hit his helmet, said, "They took a bit too long to bring out the safety car and it was dangerous. So we saw that there were some crashes at the end."

BBC F1 chief analyst Eddie Jordan believed that it "was the correct decision to let the race go ahead, despite the conditions." Jordan: "My thoughts are very clear, we're here to race and that's what should have happened and that's what did happen." BBC