F1 Debut in the The World's Largest Country

Personal commentary. (Russian GP 2014 - FP1, FP2, FP3, Qualifying) 

100 years is all it took Russia to have Grand Prix back on its shores. Amid the Ukraine-Russia tension which happened a few months back, this weekend was free of any physical conflict. In fact, it was a rather emotional one with everyone having thoughts on the Frenchman who is still admitted in ICU, having a current status of diffuse axonal injury (critical but stable condition). 

Jules Bianchi's tragic accident had taken social media by storm. In this difficult time, Jean Eric Vergne had decided to lift everyone's moods by printing stickers with their native language "tous avec Jules" which loosely translates to "all with Jules". Every F1 driver was given one and they pasted it on their helmets, racing with it in Bianchi's honour. The F1 community was not the only one. Many other drivers and even riders from other motorsport categories came together to show their support for Bianchi. It is so nice to see everyone from all parts of the globe coming together in hopes of seeing Bianchi rise up again! Thank you, Vergne, for taking the initiative to give us a boost of hope. <3 #ForzaJules #KeepFightingJulesBianchi  

The teams and their drivers are rather affected by the accident. Talks around the paddocks and garages have been solemn. The press conference in both sessions were grave. 

Fernando Alonso: Emotionally very difficult. Ready to race, to race for him, being as professional as we can but definitely our minds, or my mind, is with him in this moment, praying for him.

Adrian Sutil: So hard to say in words. Of course, very shocking moment for everyone, for myself. Nothing really to say about anything. Probably everyone has seen it. It’s just… we have to pray right now.

Felipe Massa: For me I think it was the worst race of my life. It’s a really bad race, worse than the race of my accident – because I didn’t remember.

Daniil Kvyat: Nothing like this has happened for a long time and we all hope, here in Formula One that the health to Jules. I’m thinking of him very often, like all of us. We’re all united to support him.

Jenson Button:  I think the only thing to say, and the most important thing is that we wish him well and our thoughts are with him. I think we all feel the same in the Formula One world.

Sebastian Vettel: Obviously for Jules at that time it was too small. On top of that, very unlucky circumstances led to a catastrophe really. I think at this stage, for of all, all of our thoughts are will Jules, with his family, and we wish him all the strength that we can send. About the accident, I think it is very difficult.

Graeme Lowdon:  It has been a really difficult time for the team, but I have to say we have been helped enormously by the Formula One family. I think it would have been really difficult for us to get through this week without the help of some very key people. Jules is an exceptional Formula One driver but he is also an exceptional human being. I don’t know a single person who doesn’t like him. You wouldn’t wish that accident on anybody. Certainly Jules has so many friends that it has really hit home very hard to a lot of people. Our priority from this point onwards is obviously to Jules and his family and we want to provide them with the maximum amount of support at what is really a very, very difficult time. 

Marco Mattiacci: It has been and it still is an extremely painful week for all of us on Formula One, but specifically for all of us at Ferrari, because Jules is a Ferrari driver, he’s part of the Ferrari family and he is one of us. To go to this weekend, we do it with a lot of pain but we are here to race, having Jules in our hearts.

Eric Boullier: It has been an extremely painful week. Someone from the F1 community got injured and on top of that he’s French and I’m French so I have known him for a long time, so I’m very sensitive about what happened and followed it very closely.

Monisha Kaletenborn: It’s simply these kind of tragic incidents that really get you out of balance and you just can’t go to business as usual and our thoughts, our prayers are all with him and it’ll take a while until you really can realise what’s happened. We spoke also to Adrian about the situation and it’s also very tough for him – standing right there. So it’s not easy.

Franz Tost: Yeah, the team is still shocked about everything, because Jules was many times with us, he is a very close friend of Jean-Eric Vergne and of course it’s a very difficult time and our thoughts are with Jules and the family and I hope that he recovers.

Christian Horner: Yeah, at times like this everything else becomes unimportant. Even though we are competitors on track when somebody gets injured the immediate priority has to go to the wellbeing of that individual. It was a shocking accident. One could say he was unlucky or not, that’s irrelevant at the end of the day. I have to say I know the effect it has had within our team with our drivers.

There are more negatives than positives on Bianchi's road to recovery with his condition. Recovery is possible in mild cases. As for severe cases, about 90% of survivors with severe diffuse axonal injury remain unconscious whereas the 10% that regain consciousness are often severely impaired. It isn't soothing information for the ears to process but I am confident Bianchi will be the one to beat the odds. If the worst can be granted, what makes Bianchi's impossible? Miracles are present to make it happen. Bianchi will be back to his normal self in no time! Stay strong, everyone! He needs us! :) 

Sochi Autodrom is another creation of Hermann Tilke. The track has the recognisable traits of most tracks of Tilke's, a carbon copy of parts from Valencia, Yas Marina and Korea. I would say the surrounding Olympic park makes the track stand out. In terms of track profile, it looks like a fun circuit to race in, long but fast. 

The McLaren drivers were surprisingly quick on the first day of practice. Not so in FP3 but they regained the momentum in qualifying. 

The rest of the weekend was pretty normal. The Russians got to see their fellow countryman Sergey Sirotkin make his F1 debut in FP1. I was stunned to see Felipe Massa out from Q1 earlier today. Fortunately for him, he had the car to blame. Unfortunately for him, he has to start from the 18th because of that.  

The new track of his home race seems to be in the Russian's favour this weekend as we see Daniil Kvyat in top ten in every single session. With a confirmed Red Bull seat alongside Daniel Ricciardo next season, he had taken the upgrade seriously. Well, that's not a bad thing of course. Happy to see him having such a remarkable results. Hoping this lucky streak will continue on tomorrow. Again, wouldn't it be nice to see a Russian finishing well in his home race? 

Russian GP Qualifying: 

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:38.759 1:38.338 1:38.513 18
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:39.076 1:38.606 1:38.713 18
3 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:39.125 1:38.971 1:38.920 23
4 Jenson Button McLaren 1:39.560 1:39.381 1:39.121 22
5 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:40.074 1:39.296 1:39.277 27
6 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:39.735 1:39.022 1:39.629 21
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:40.519 1:39.666 1:39.635 21
8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:40.255 1:39.786 1:39.709 25
9 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:40.098 1:39.838 1:39.771 26
10 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:40.354 1:39.929 1:40.020 27
11 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:40.382 1:40.052 13
12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:40.273 1:40.058 16
13 Sergio Perez Force India 1:40.723 1:40.163 13
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:41.159 1:40.536 18
15 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:40.766 1:40.984 18
16 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:42.526 1:41.397 18
17 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:42.648 9
18 Felipe Massa Williams 1:43.064 8
19 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:43.166 9
20 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:43.205 5
21 Max Chilton Marussia 1:43.649 10

* Gearbox penalties for Pastor Maldonado, Kevin Magnussen, Nico Hulkenberg and Max Chilton. *