Jules Bianchi

Jules Bianchi

Bianchi in 2012.
Born	(1989-08-03) 3 August 1989 Nice, France
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	French
2014 team	Marussia-Ferrari[1]
2014 car #	17
Races	19 (19 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	2013 Australian Grand Prix
Last race	2013 Brazilian Grand Prix
2013 position	19th (0 pts)

Jules Bianchi (born 3 August 1989) is a French racing driver, who currently drives for the Marussia Formula One team. He made his Formula One debut in 2013, driving for Marussia alongside Max Chilton. Previously he has raced in Formula Renault 3.5, the GP2 Series and Formula Three.

Family

Born in Nice, France, to Philippe,^[2] Jules Bianchi is the grandson of Mauro Bianchi, three-times World Champion in the GT category, and the grandnephew of Lucien, who won the 1968 24 Hours of Le Mans and competed in nineteen Grands Prix in the Formula One World Championship between 1959 and 1968, with a podium finish in Monaco.^[3][4]

Early career

Formula Renault

In 2007 Bianchi left karting and raced in French Formula Renault 2.0 for SG Formula, where he finished as champion with five wins.^[5] He also competed in the Formula Renault Eurocup where he had one pole position and one fastest lap in three races.^[6]

Formula Three

Bianchi during the opening round of the 2009 Formula 3 Euro Series season at Hockenheim.

In late 2007, Bianchi signed with ART Grand Prix to compete in the Formula 3 Euro Series.^[7] Bianchi is currently managed by ART boss Nicolas Todt, manager of Formula One driver Felipe Massa.^[8]

In 2008 Bianchi won the Masters of Formula 3 at Zolder,^[9] and also finished third in the 2008 Formula 3 Euro Series season.^[10]

Bianchi continued in the F3 Euroseries in 2009, leading ART's line-up along with rookie team-mates Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Gutiérrez and Adrien Tambay.^[11] With eight wins, Bianchi sealed the title with a round to spare, at Dijon-Prenois. He then added a ninth win at the final round at Hockenheim. He also drove in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series at Monaco, after SG Formula acquired the cars formerly run by Kurt Mollekens.^[12]

GP2 Series

Bianchi at Monza in 2011

Bianchi drove for ART in the forthcoming GP2 Asia season and the 2010 GP2 Series season.^[13] He competed in three of the four rounds of the GP2 Asia championship.^[14] In the main series, Bianchi took two pole positions and a number of points positions before he was injured in a first-lap crash at the Hungaroring.^[15] In the feature race, he spun into the path of the field exiting the first corner, and was struck head-on by Ho-Pin Tung, sustaining a fractured second lumbar vertebra in the process.^[16] Bianchi was fourth in the drivers' championship at the time of his injury. Despite initial pessimistic assessments of the severity of his injury, he recovered to take part in the next round of the championship.^[17]

Bianchi driving for Lotus ART during the Silverstone round of the 2011 GP2 Series season.

Bianchi remained with ART for 2011, and was partnered by 2010 GP3 Series champion Esteban Gutiérrez. He starred in the first two rounds of the 2011 GP2 Asia Series, holding off Romain Grosjean for victory in the feature race^[18] and gaining fourth in the sprint race,^[19] but he was later penalised.^[20] He finished runner-up to Grosjean in the drivers' championship.^[21] In the main series, Bianchi finished third in the championship, behind Grosjean and Luca Filippi.^[22]

Formula Renault 3.5

Bianchi opted to switch to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series for 2012, following his one-off appearance in the category in 2009. He signed for the Tech 1 Racing team, and is partnered with Kevin Korjus,^[23] and later by Daniel Abt.

Bianchi was instantly competitive and lead the championship early. He ended the championship in second after a collision with eventual champion Robin Frijns.

Formula One

Ferrari and Sahara Force India

In August 2009, Bianchi was linked by the BBC and various other media sources to the second Ferrari Formula One seat occupied by Luca Badoer during Felipe Massa's absence.^[24][25] Bianchi tested for Ferrari at the young drivers test at Circuito de Jerez for two of the three days, over December 1–2, 2009.^[26] This allowed for Ferrari to test Daniel Zampieri, Marco Zipoli and Pablo Sánchez López on 3 December, as they finished in the top three of the 2009 Italian Formula Three Championship. Bianchi's performance on day one of the test led to him being signed by Scuderia Ferrari as a young driver along with Daniel Zampieri, Mirko Bortolotti and Raffaele Marciello.^[27]

On 11 November 2010 he was confirmed by Ferrari as the team's test and reserve driver for the 2011 season, replacing Luca Badoer, Giancarlo Fisichella and Marc Gené, as well as confirming he would test for the team during the young driver test in Abu Dhabi over 16–17 November.^[28] On 13 September 2011, Bianchi tested for Ferrari as part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, with fellow academy member and Sauber F1 driver Sergio Pérez.^[29] For the 2012 season, Ferrari loaned him to the Force India team, for whom he drove in nine Friday free practice sessions over the course of the year as the outfit's test and reserve driver.^[30]

Marussia

2013

Bianchi driving the Marussia MR02 at the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix.

On 1 March 2013, Marussia announced that Bianchi was to replace Luiz Razia as a race driver after Razia's contract was terminated, due to sponsorship issues.^[31] Bianchi qualified 19th for the Australian Grand Prix, out-qualifying team-mate Max Chilton by three-quarters of a second. Bianchi overtook Pastor Maldonado, and Daniel Ricciardo on the first lap and he eventually finished 15th on his debut.^[32][33] He was 19th on the grid again in Malaysia, 0.3 seconds away from Q2. Bianchi fell behind the Caterhams at the start of the race, but moved up the order after the pit stops, eventually going on to finish 13th, ahead of his teammate, and both Caterhams.^[34] As of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Bianchi had beaten his teammate in all qualifying sessions and all races that both of them had finished.^[35]In the Japanese Grand Prix he and Charles Pic of Caterham were given 10 place grid penalty, and at the race, his race ended early after a collision with Van der Garde.^[36]

2014

In October 2013, Marussia confirmed that Bianchi would stay at the team for the following season.^[37][38]

Racing record

Career summary

† – As Bianchi was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicates fastest lap)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jules Bianchi.

• Official website
• Jules Bianchi career statistics at Driver Database

v t e Marussia F1 Team Team Principals John Booth Graeme Lowdon Personnel Nikolai Fomenko Andy Webb 2014 Race drivers 4. Max Chilton 17. Jules Bianchi 2014 Test drivers TBA Young driver progamme Dino Zamparelli Tio Ellinas Rio Haryanto Former drivers Charles Pic Timo Glock Formula One cars MR01 MR02 MR03 Related Marussia Motors Manor Motorsport