Bianchi hails team after ‘amazing’ result

2014 Monaco Grand Prix

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Jules Bianchi has spoken of his pride in the Marussia team after his ninth place classification secured the team their first ever world championship points.

Despite a gearbox penalty prior to the race, a five-second penalty for starting in the wrong grid slot and then a further five-second time penalty at the end of the race for taking his initial penalty under the Safety Car, Bianchi held his nerve to secure two vital points for Marussia.

“The team are really happy, as I am,” said Bianchi. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time.

“I’m proud of the team. They did a really good job and I’m really happy to give them a result.”

Helped by a high rate of attrition at the front, Marussia’s first points looked to be in doubt with the stewards awarding Bianchi a five-second penalty on to his finishing time. But after Raikkonen and Magnussen collided at the Hairpin in the closing laps, a points finish was assured.

“It was really stressful for me in the car – I guess it was for the team as well!,” said Bianchi. “We had some penalties, so we were lucky to finish in the points. But I cannot say any more. It’s amazing for us.”

Bianchi’s two points puts Marussia into ninth in the constructors’ championship – their highest ever position.

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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47 comments on “Bianchi hails team after ‘amazing’ result”

  1. Really pleased for Bianchi and everyone at Marussia. Even with retirements and luck in their favour, its a great reward for their hard work

    1. Alex McFarlane
      25th May 2014, 17:34

      +1

      They may not compete on speed but they’ve done a heck of a job with reliability, considering bigger teams are still struggling with theirs.

    2. Yeah, its really great to see how this team has finally started to turn the pages on getting somewhere. Last year they looked like having a purpose, this year with the Ferrari engines and a solid job on their chassis they seem to have taken that a step further.

      Took em 5 years, but now they are here, in the midfield

  2. Daniel (@collettdumbletonhall)
    25th May 2014, 17:32

    Fantastic result!

  3. Absolutely brilliant for Bianchi and Marussia. Much less so for Caterham however…

    Having started out easily the best when they all joined in 2010 (albeit as Lotus), Caterham have since fallen further and further back, and despite their dismal performances in the last few seasons, I’ll be sad to see them go at the end of this year.

    1. Michael Brown
      25th May 2014, 18:14

      I’ve heard rumours that Fernandes put Caterham up for sale. If that’s true, Marussia added insult to injury.

    2. Well, as Caterham beat Sauber as well, they currently lie 10th in the constructors’, which means that next year they would be granted a higher status for earning money from Bernie. So its not all that bad.

      1. I think Sauber are still 10th.

      2. No, Caterham are still behind Sauber in the WCC on countback – Sauber picked up 11th and 12th in the Australian GP, whereas Caterham’s next best finishes after Ericsson’s 11th place are two 13th place finishes (the first in Malaysia and the second was today in Monaco).

        However, as things stand, Caterham just need a 12th place finish to then be ranked ahead of Sauber on countback (Sauber’s next best finishing places are two 16th’s in China and Spain).
        It speaks volumes about how bad their season has been so far that the only thing Sauber have been leading in is the retirement rate (seven retirements between their two drivers in just six races).

    3. Paul (@frankjaeger)
      25th May 2014, 23:33

      Maybe Caterham’s performance the from now until their birth in 2010 has been underwhelming but had Bianchi not bumped Kamui out the way, it would have been Kamui in that position. I don’t know if Kamui had damage after that but it certainly seemed like it, it was a pass that could have easily ended much worse.

      I think they performed better than Marussia today and had things gone only very slightly different a lot of people on here would be saying the opposite and praising Caterham’s gains.

      Regardless, Well done to Jules and Marrusia! I’d be seeking out the Marussia teams for a drink if I was in Monaco tonight!

      1. quinnolabar
        26th May 2014, 1:24

        +1
        I hope that Caterham will be able to find a point this season as well. It would be a shame to see yet another team leave F1.

  4. Three penalties and they still managed the result. Talk about destiny. Hard work made it possible. All credit to the team and Jules. Hoping he gets a good car soon or that Marussia improves to a midfleld team.

  5. quite impressive! i can’t help to ask to myself: if he had’nt got all those penalties, how much higher would’ve he ended?

    1. I’d bet the farm on ninth.

      1. In the middle of the melee, He could have surely jumped a couple cars ahead and judgin by his pace in the latter stages he would have held up pretty much anyone from 4th down.

      2. He finished in 8th already.

    2. If he hadn’t got the last one, he would have finished 8th. 5-second penalty put him behind Grosjean.

  6. I have to say I really enjoy this result for Marussia, because it is a legit result; there were more finishers than point scoring positions, no rain, no disqualifications up the field, the driver in question hit with multiple penalties..

    Marussia has really been working on improving the past couple of years and seem to be getting somewhere, albeit slowly. Caterham meanwhile seem to be slipping back and investing less and less.

    1. Mr win or lose
      25th May 2014, 23:36

      Caterham looked bad because Kobayashi’s car got damaged in his fierce battle with Bianchi.

  7. I can’t wait for Bianchi to take his chances in a top team hopefully Ferrari but that will only be in 2016, i can’t wait also for Raffaele Marciello to get in F1 but that will only be in 2016, he’s still adapting to GP2 i think he needs another year. The FDA seems to be doing a reasonable job

  8. Insane overtake on Kobyashi, well deserved points for this team. :)

  9. Surprised that he thanks the team despite team screw-ups which are likely the cause of his penalties. Help me; I don’t know what he did wrong. Jules and Hulk were my drivers of the day.

    1. Bianchi, Gutierrez and Ericsson all line up in the wrong grid positions, not quite sure how it happened. Then Bianchi took his penalty (barely) during the safety car causing the second penalty.

    2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      25th May 2014, 21:09

      @curmudgeon
      Wow, you really cheer up the parties right?

      1. @omarr-pepper
        Haven’t been to a party since I turned 40 a few decades ago. But then, I am a curmudgeon.

  10. I have spent uncountable minutes of many races hoping for “one or two more retirements” so that a Marussia, or even a Caterham, could get up into the top 10, and it is with great joy that I saw it finally happen! Jules drove a great race, stayed out of trouble despite always being in the mix, and Chilton’s performance shows that staying out of danger isn’t enough.

  11. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    25th May 2014, 18:29

    For me the audition is now over. The thing that should have grabbed the attention of Ferrari most from the weekend is the potential of Jule Bianchi; his speed is beyond denial and with a bigger team to rub off his rough edges, he could establish a successful career in F1. Meanwhile at Sauber a poor C33 car is being compounded by poor drivers, with the first six races of 2014 confirming a) that Sutil needs to retire and b) that Gutierrez has NO potential in F1. Do something positive for F1, Ferrari, and put your hands in your pockets and compensate Sauber for a) getting rid of Gutierrez and Sutil and b) signing Bianchi + one other fast young prospect (Marciello? Calado?). Generally it helps when a Driver Academy has at least the vaguest hope of a decent F1 seat…

    1. I wish it worked that way too. How much talent has been wasted, overlooked, and abandoned at the back of the field is truly a tragedy for F1 and racing as a whole. The shortage of competitive cars for competitive drivers has been a problem for all Motorsports and F1 in particular. The effect of this has been so greatly compounded by money, luck, and connections often being of higher importance than talent in the climb to the pinnacle of Motorsports. both of these very related problems have existed in Motorsports since the beginning of Motorsports. For every super talent like Senna that makes it there are tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people like Terry Fullerton and Jan Magnussen who’s talent wasn’t ever proven or put to good use because they slipped through the recruiting cracks without their talent potential being realized and or recognized, because they were never given a proper chance to prove themselves, or they just had suck ass luck and weren’t able to continue racing long enough to make the big time. Today’s F1 driver market is currently so over saturated with talented drivers who should be given a proper shot and those who are given a competitive boost by financial backing and those made it up the ranks by being good enough to justify their move to the next rung but not really being good enough to really fight those leading the series. These drivers are the bros that got into Harvard because of daddy’s money or the students that made it through high school by being solid B students, but were never on the level of the A students. These problems are part of the reality of F1, but I don’t have to like it. I want to see all the A students who truly have the right stuff duke it out in competitive cars. The number of competitive rides will just never be enough to allow the huge number of incredible drivers. The number of high talented drivers that have been written off unfairly and the number of highly talented prospects that have sat in waiting in the wings until they were forgotten is unacceptable. Perez should still be at Mclaren and Hulkenberg should be racing for Ferrari; Paul di Resta, Heikki Kovalainen, Bruno Senna, Sebastien Buemi, Robert Kubica, and many other drivers have deserved more time on the grid that they were given and the sheer number of prospects that Mclaren, Red Bull, Ferrari, Williams, Sauber, and Renault (these are the most frequent offenders, but all teams have done this) have flirted with, developed, and then cruelly cut off and left to fend for themselves or placed in waiting only to forget about is frankly unacceptable.

      1. Now that’s what I call a jumbo-sized paragraph.

      2. It reminds me of the story of the three F1 enthusiasts who liked nothing better than to argue over who was the greatest driver of them all. This was never settled because each of the friends stuck rigidly to their opinion and would not be swayed.

        On a coach tour to Spa one year (ooh look, a paragraph), their driver went off the road and the entire party was killed in the ensuing crash. The three friends were together in the queue for the pearly gates as a result and they asked St Peter if he would settle their dispute for them. He replied that he did not know and they should ask God. So off they went to see the Big Guy.

        He listened to the tale of their long dispute and finally answered their question. “The greatest driver of all time was Manfred Hockstein,” He advised. The three were dumbfounded at this answer. “I’ve never heard of him,” they replied simultaneously.

        “I’m not surprised,” said God. “Manfred was an Austrian peasant living in the Alps of the Tyrol and he never even saw a car in his whole life. But I gave him the talent and, if he’d ever had the chance, then you would have seen something special!”

        1. Brilliant !!!

  12. BIA is a great driver. ALO and BIA at Ferarri in ’15.

  13. Well done marusia and ofcourse Bianchi.He has great potential!

  14. Bianchi’s is Ferrari’s Ricciardo.

  15. Anything like Mark Webber in the 2009 German GP and no amount of penalties would’ve stopped Marussia from scoring points today with Jules Bianchi! :D

  16. I still want to know how he built a gap to Grosjean.

  17. I dont understand the second penalty? Why did the FIA feel the need to penalise him for sitting idle for 5 seconds in the pits?

    1. The penalty was nullified from being served under the SC, so they felt the need to apply it again.

      1. So they only added 5s to his final result?

        1. Yes. Because he was supposed to add it to his pitstop and didn’t do that at the right time.

  18. It’s the first time this season where he’s really driven well, and my word did he drive well. He had been last in the standing until this race, now he’s ahead of both Sauber drivers and Maldonado.

  19. I challenge anyone to not have their mood improved by looking at this team photo full of very happy people:

    https://twitter.com/Marussia_F1Team/status/470622262300000256/photo/1

  20. Was great to see Toto Wolff come down and congratulate Graeme Lowdon. I’m really chuffed for them, great little team and finally achieving the progress they’ve worked so hard to achieve.

  21. Finally!! Marussia scores points…I was following Bianchi’s progress more than what was going on up front.

    So I guess, if Caterham dont score point this year…its curtains?

  22. I’m so over the Ham/Rosberg politics and drama, the Murussia result is the best story of the year so far!

  23. Bianchi finally had the stage set for him to show what he’s made of. And he took care of business. That will bode well for his career.

    And Marussia has become a much more solid team over the years. I think that the stint of Pat Symonds there helped them quite a bit in terms of both finesse and culture. That will linger for a while and today’s result will give them a psychological boost and help the lessons stick.

  24. Let’s not go too mad. He finished where he always does, best of the slow teams. Lots of retirements and Mag/Rai crash bumped him up. Well done and all, but lets not pretend it was anything more than luck and circumstance that gave him this position.

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