Jules Bianchi recovery - Japan 2014

[Shrieker]

It's nothing short of heroic he took the blow and persisted.

[Just_a_fan]

The impact lifted and rotated the tractor and appears to have broken the rear suspension of the tractor too. It was a huge impact and it appears, from the video, that his head may have hit the rear of the tractor a glancing blow. At the least, the car would have been pushed sideways by the tractor whilst his head would have tried to carry on in a straight line. The helmet would meet the deformable head guard and even that wouldn't have prevented a violent acceleration within his head. Hence the damage done.

A terrifying accident and one that we've been very lucky not to have seen more often in recent years.

[Edax]

It's nothing short of heroic he took the blow and persisted.

-a F1 car of 700kgs travelling at 30 m/s carries about 3e5J of energy
-To make a 7000kg tractor jump half a meter in the air costs 3.5e-4J.

Sobering to think that all the dramatic visual effects only represent a fraction of the energy discipated in the crash.

And it is amazing how a human protected by a few layers of carbon and kevlar can stay alive in that kind of violence.

But let's just hope he did more than just that, and that he will also make a good recovery.

[Manoah2u]

despite the remarkable amount of unluckyness Jules caught - apart from the entire 'driving 215kmph department',
he somehow seems to have managed to grab a serious amount of luck, too.

well, not entirely sure though because that also depends somewhat on the actual outcome....but....

if his car was angled just a tiny bit more to the left, his head might have flat-on hit it first, instead of the side part of his car, the side part of his helmet (presumably) and the 'airbox'.

or if the truck was a bit further travelled back, he could have slammed straight into the wheel.....i have serious doubt whether the front crash structure of the f1 car would have managed to survive such a blow or, if it would have meant survival. Despite the non-luck, a lot of energy was absorbed because 1.the car continued 'sliding', 2. the airbox caught the energy. 3. energy was transferred to the truck. - now imagine all that same energy put in the dead centre of the rear wheel of that truck....i don't think there was any way to survive such an extreme impact...

if the truck had travelled even further back, he might have 'skated' underneath the truck completely. well that could have 'easily' literally decapicitated jules (the horror), or atleast broken his neck with the weight of the truck landing back on his helmet.

and, most of all.....the most luck is he's still alive, because wow, after seeing that vid, if i'd seen that live, i wouldn't have believed sombody could survive that. Despite he's still in critical condition, atleast he is in stable condition and there are possibilities he will keep alive and - perhaps, in the most positive scenario, make a good recovery.

It was released he has severe brain damage, so he'll never be the way he was, but i take positive from the forum members that mention Richard Hammond as an example of 'recovering'. So as unlucky as he was, he is lucky still - well, let's hope so.

[Faustino]

Plenty of time for the blame game once a proper independent investigation is carried out, and it needs one. This is on a par with the violence of crash that Ratzenberger had, far worse than Senna's although the injuries sustained are similar.

If he survives this, as in being able to stay alive without the assistance of machines it will be a miracle. I think it's safe to say he will never race an F1 car again.

This is a hard topic to discuss and brings back bad memories of losing a very close friend in a Formula Ford race at Oulton Park in 1999, he actually raced for the same team Senna was with in that division during the 80's.

[Vettel Maggot]

Anyway, good luck to Jules, he is one of my favourite up and coming drivers, I just hope that he has quality of life if he does recover.

[Vasconia]

News about this accident and his medical condition cant hardly be worse. According to some experts there is only a 10% of chances to see him recovering from the current state of comma.

So no more races and which is worse, no normal life if he survives to this. This truly sucks...

[nismo]

It's nothing short of heroic he took the blow and persisted.

-a F1 car of 700kgs travelling at 30 m/s carries about 3e5J of energy
-To make a 7000kg tractor jump half a meter in the air costs 3.5e-4J.

Sobering to think that all the dramatic visual effects only represent a fraction of the energy discipated in the crash.

And it is amazing how a human protected by a few layers of carbon and kevlar can stay alive in that kind of violence.

But let's just hope he did more than just that, and that he will also make a good recovery.

Dont forget in your calculations that the tractor basically had the Sauber as a counter weight on one end.

[Shakeman]

News about this accident and his medical condition cant hardly be worse. According to some experts there is only a 10% of chances to see him recovering from the current state of comma.
(

At least he didn't suffer from a full stop.

[siskue2005]

Yeah I don't care if he races or not, all I hope is he has a normal life with full recovery [-o<

[fenix4life]

And it is amazing how a human protected by a few layers of carbon and kevlar can stay alive in that kind of violence.

You have staying alive and being alive.
Even though hard words, sometimes less protection might be better for the person and family,

Let's hope he will be able to wake up and regain some mobility,

[Edax]

News about this accident and his medical condition cant hardly be worse. According to some experts there is only a 10% of chances to see him recovering from the current state of comma.

So no more races and which is worse, no normal life if he survives to this. This truly sucks...

You have expert and experts. The ones which quote the 10% chance of recovery are the ones which have read the first paragraph of the wikipedia page which states:

"The outcome is frequently coma, with over 90% of patients with severe DAI never regaining consciousness."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffuse_axonal_injury

....and misintepreted it in saying that 10% of all DAI patients remain vegetative.

A real expert will say that first of all it is very hard to diagnose DAI and even harder to diagnose the severity and the recovery chances especially so shortly after the injury.

They will tell to prepare for the worst, hope for the best and be patient until an actual prognosis can be made.

[SectorOne]

Nobody even knows at what level Bianchi´s injury is so it´s impossible to say whether he will be a vegetable or coming back to being a fully working human being.

[BTS]

Sir Stirling Moss had DAI and eventually carried on racing. I don't want to be over optimistic, but I just want to believe he will be ok.

[Andres125sx]

Sir Stirling Moss had DAI and eventually carried on racing.

Really? Didn´t know it thanks, that´s a good data to keep some hope