Jules Bianchi’s family has already paid a heavy price for beign in motorsports. In 1969, his great-uncle lucien Bianchi, died in an accident during testing at the le Mans race track when he crashed his Alfa Romeo into a post, a year after winning the prestigious endurance race. lucien was regarded as one of the most talented drivers of his generation.
Jules Bianchi is also the grandson of Mauro Bianchi, a three-time world champion in the GT Sports car class. Jules Bianchi’s father, who owns a restaurant in Southern France with his wife Christine and managed the karting track where Jules developed his driving skills, also thought about embracing a career in auto racing but quickly gave up on the idea.
“It was too complicated because the family did not want to go through more tragedy,” Philippe Bianchi, who flew to Japan with his wife to be at his son’s bedside, told local newspaper Corse Matin in a recent interview.
While sacrificing his own hopes and personal aspirations, Philippe encouraged his son to follow his desire after noticing he was a natural on the track. As the reigning French karting champion, Jules Bianchi won the Formula Renault 2.0 series in 2007 and became F3 Euro Series champion two years later before being included in Ferrari’s young drivers programme.
With his reputation growing, Bianchi was rewarded with a reserve driver spot for Force India’s F1 team and looked set for a race seat for the 2013 season. But Adrian Sutil returned to the team.
Bianchi’s agent Nicolas Todt convinced Marussia to hire him, just two weeks before the start of the season. “Things went really fast, it was even more beautiful than getting to drive for Force India, because I had given hope,” Bianchi had then said.