FIA accident report reveals Bianchi didn't 'slow down sufficiently' before crash

An FIA accident report has revealed that Formula One driver Jules Bianchi did not slow down sufficiently to avoid losing control before his crash at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Bianchi suffered severe head injuries in the crash in October after hitting the recovery vehicle in wet conditions at 126 kilometers-per-hour and remains unconscious in hospital.

The FIA added that a braking system on Bianchi's Marussia prevented a failsafe from working, which was designed to cut the car's engine, The BBC reported.

Bianchi suffered a diffuse axonal head injury when he crashed into a recovery vehicle at Suzuka that was removing Adrian Sutil's Sauber car from the circuit.

The Frenchman is no longer in an artificial coma and is breathing unaided, but remains unconscious.

After a review of all the evidence, a 10-man Accident Panel appointed by the FIA issued a 396-page report on their findings, with one conclusion being that Bianchi did not slow sufficiently to avoid losing control at the same point on the track as Sutil.

In the days following the accident, Marussia said that they were shocked and angered by reports from some media outlets that suggest Bianchi did not slow down under caution flags.

The team had also denied claims that they told Bianchi to go faster during the caution period to keep a rival behind. Marussia have since ceased trading with all staff made redundant after they failed to secure funding to compete next season.

The FIA's report also revealed that during the two seconds Bianchi's car was leaving the track and traversing the run-off area, the racer applied both throttle and brake together, using both feet.

It also stated that Bianchi's Marussia has a unique design of BBW, which proved to be incompatible with the Failsafe settings.

The report also says that the fact that the Failsafe did not disqualify the engine torque requested by the driver might have affected the impact velocity; it has not been possible to reliably quantify this.

However, the FIA has stated that it may be that Bianchi was distracted by what was happening and the fact that his front wheels had locked, and been unable to steer the car such that it missed the crane.

Following the results of the report, the FIA would be tightening the limits to which teams can make changes to the parameters from next season, the report added.