Bianchi, who was laid to rest in his home city of Nice in France on Tuesday, died last week after he succumbed to the devastating brain injuries he sustained at the Japanese Grand Prix nine months ago.
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The paddock in Budapest was in a sombre mood on Thursday as the Formula One fraternity came to terms with the first driver to be killed at a grand prix weekend since Ayrton Senna died at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
Tributes have poured in from all over the motorsport world, and Bianchi will be remembered this weekend with a number of on-car messages and a minute’s silence ahead of the race on Sunday.
Family, friends and some colleagues attended the funeral at Sainte Reparate Cathedral, and fans gathered outside mourning with flowers and pictures of the 25-year-old driver, reports Xinhua.
Several drivers shook hands or hugged the Bianchi family.
The F.I.A, the governing body of formula one, announced that it will permanently retire Bianchi’s number 17, which is the first time this has occurred.
However, the drivers all said that their approach to racing wouldn’t change and that all thought of the dangers of their chosen sport would be pushed aside once they donned their helmets and slipped into the cockpit of their cars.
Former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said deceased Formula 1 driver Jules Bianchi would have replaced Kimi Raikkonen at the Italian outfit.
“I couldn’t say that I was really a friend of Jules, I didn’t really know him that well”.
“The past few days have been extremely hard for our team members, but I am very proud of the way everyone has balanced the enormous sense of loss with the focus required for the start of a Grand Prix weekend”, insisted Booth.
“This week all our thoughts are with him, but personally I’ll never forget that we raced and we’ll race for Jules as well”.
“I met him – he was still racing in go-karts – because we have the same manager”. At the time of his accident, he had been driving for Formula One minnows Marussia. “I know he’d want us to race hard as he did, and so I will”. I spent one week in Lanzarote training camp with Ferrari in 2012 and we were room-mates on the training camp so a lot of time together.
“Important lessons have been learned from his tragic accident last year and changes implemented to prevent that kind of accident recurring”.
A relatively slow but corner-heavy circuit, the narrow Hungaroring presents drivers with a challenge different to most rounds on the F1 calendar, with overtaking particularly tricky.
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Hamilton, who leads Rosberg by 17 points in this year s title race, is in pursuit of his third title, but made clear this week he will have much more on his mind as he seeks to extend that advantage on a sun baked, tight and demanding track where he has traditionally shone in past seasons.
