There's a petition to rename a corner in Monaco after Jules Bianchi.

(Photo: Patrick Stollarz/AFP)

Jules Bianchi has received a number of tributes from the F1 community, the most moving in my book, Vettel's after winning the Hungarian GP  in July.

But let's face it, maybe that clip of Vettel's tribute will live on the internet for a bit longer but most people will forget the minutes of silence and kind words pretty quickly.

Since he passed away July 17, a group of fans started a petition on Facebook with the hope of convincing the Automobile Club de Monaco to rename one of the corners of the Grand Prix circuit after the unlucky Frenchman.

F1 gathers to to bid Jules Bianchi farewell.

The funeral for Jules Bianchi took place today in Nice.

Present at the function were many in the F1 community, past an present,  gathered to pay their respects to the Frenchman who passed away last Friday,  nine months after his accident at the Japanese GP and to be close to the Bianchi family.

Vettel, Grosjean and Sutil

Ciao Jules.

“Jules fought right to the very end, as he always did, but today his battle came to an end.”

With those words his family announced Jules Bianchi had passed during the night.

Jules, who would have been 26 on August 3rd, had been cared for in his hometown of Nice since shortly after the devastating accident in Japan last October.  

Racing for Marussia at the time, Bianchi was being groomed by Ferrari for a spot at the Scuderia. He was the first driver to be recruited by the Ferrari Driver Academy program in 2009.

Bianchi's is the first racing fatality to hit Formula 1 since the death of Ayrton Senna in 1994.

Our heartfelt condolences to the Bianchi family and all his friends.  

Ciao Jules.

Charlie Whiting confirms nobody lifted.

In a press conference held at Sochi Friday evening, in the presence of FIA President Jean Todt, F1 Race Director Charlie Whiting confirmed what many suspected:  none of the racers slowed down much for the double yellow flags which were flown in Sector 7 at Suzuka following Sutil's accident.

Official confirmation of what was fairly obvious just from looking at data displayed on the F1 app.

As a consequence, F1 will be looking into options to take speed control in these situation away from drivers.    This would likely result in a procedure similar to Endurance Racing's Code 60  which mandates a maximum speed through a problem area.

Aside from this, journalists present were shown CCTV footage of the crash which, as Sky Sports Ted Kravitz reported, showed Bianchi had a tank slapper before he went off and hit the recovery crane.  No sign of mechanical failure has been detected so far.

The FIA once again was forced to confirm (and I can't believe anyone working in F1 media still asked about it) that the Green flag seen in the video clips was indeed correctly displayed.

There was a mention of looking into fitting recovery vehicles with some sort of protective skirt  and that the vehicle was dispatched by Race Control.

Whiting denied late starting time for the race was a factor although they had offered the organizers a chance to move it up.

Whiting shot down Felipe Massa's assertion that he was "screaming on the radio" for race direction to stop the race.

There was no talk of canopies.

A video of Bianchi's accident surfaces

Frankly, it does not tell you much of anything except the violence of the horrific impact which  completely lifted the heavy crane off the ground.

If you feel you must watch it,  the fan video by Philip Dabrowiecki is now HERE

More interesting would be an onboard which might give some sense if Bianchi could have seen the waving yellow flags and slowed down in time.   But, if it exists, the FIA and Marussia are not releasing it.

A number of readers will certainly question why there was a green flag waved at station 12.   It is technically the station beyond the accident and the green flag would signal a clear track in the segment beyond it. However, given the proximity, the presence of track workers in the runoff area and the conditions, questions are bound to be raised.

Jules Bianchi's accident casts a pall over the Japanese GP

The look on Rosberg's, Hamilton's and Vettel's faces said it all.

Alessio De Marco

Lewis Hamilton got the better of his team-mate Nico Rosberg and took a well deserved win at Suzuka but the whole thing became rather meaningless as word of the seriousness of the injuries Jules Bianchi sustained when he crashed into a recovery vehicle.

Lates word is that he's out of surgery and in intensive case.   His roll bar failed in the impact with the crane which was removing  Sutil's car, which had gone off moments earlier.

There will inevitably be controversy because you can argue hitting a heavy machine is much more dangerous than hitting another F1 car.  Perhaps the organizers should have waited for the cars to be all under Safety Car before bringing the crane in.  Perhaps the  Safety car should have been called out earlier.    Perhaps Bianchi just did not realize the yellow was out or simply could not see it.

But it guess to show you how despite all effort and amazing advances, racing will never be "too safe".

All our best wishes to Jules.