Legacy
At about this time 18 months ago, I found out Jules Bianchi had died. I tried writing about him yesterday, but the words just wouldn’t come out of my fingers. (On sober reflection, starting to read for the first time the Auto Hebdo tribute it made in the immediate aftermath - it was among the back issues I received a couple of weeks ago - probably didn’t do my blogging skills much good at that moment...)
It is touching to see how he continues to be remembered. Nice will rename the rue de Sapin in his honour (the street is in the Saint-Isidore area, near the OGC Nice football stadium) on January 23. This will be a lasting tribute that is particularly fitting because the neighbourhood has several other streets named after local sporting heroes.
Tech 1 Racing (the team with which Jules raced in Formula 3.5) will carry the logos of l’Association Jules Bianchi on its cars this year. I would be interested to see if Manor WEC also starts carrying these logos, alongside the #JB17 one its LMP2 cars have had throughout 2016. The Association has two quite different goals: to help people with serious head injuries in the local Archet hospital, where Jules stayed for most of his fight to recover from his fatal crash, and to help young racers make a career out of motorsport (something that Jules had already been involved with, most notably in mentoring Charles Leclerc). That there is support out there for something which will not only do a lot of good, but also feels consonant with the things Jules represents in my heart, feels good. Perhaps I do not hear Jules’ name as much as I did in those first months, when the grief was still raw, but it is clear that the the things he did, and the man he was, will not be in vain. Seeing this helps.
