An impassioned Sergio Perez has vowed that Formula 1’s drivers will make themselves heard in the aftermath of Jules Bianchi’s horrific Suzuka accident, with the Mexican labelling the events of last Sunday “totally unacceptable”.
Just four days after the sport was left in a state of shock by Bianchi’s life-threatening collision with a recovery truck, with the Frenchman remaining in a ‘critical but stable’ condition in hospital in Japan, the paddock reconvened on Thursday for the first time at Sochi’s new circuit ahead of the inaugural Russian GP.
The FIA have already launched an investigation into the crash and speaking to Sky Sports News HQ, Perez said the drivers were also keen to find out exactly what happened.
“We will make sure they will hear us because what happened on Sunday is totally unacceptable,” the Force India driver said. "The accident could have been avoided. I want to hear an explanation from the FIA.
“We will go through every single detail – or at least myself, I’m sure many drivers will support this idea – but we want to go into full detail on what happened. We’ve got to be together, we are together.”
Debate has already started on what F1 can learn from Bianchi’s accident, with prospective changes to the sport’s Safety Car protocol already one idea mooted.
Asked if he felt the pace car was always deployed at the right time by Race Control during races, Perez replied: “No they don’t and it’s something we definitely have to improve.”
The positioning of Japan and Russia on the 2014 calendar means the sport’s protagonists have had little time to pause for thought or reflection since learning about Bianchi’s accident and the serious extent of his injuries.
Besides racing against Bianchi in F1 over the last two seasons, Perez also competed against the Frenchman as a junior driver in GP2 while the pair, both now in their mid-20s, were also members of the Ferrari Driver Academy at the same time.
With Bianchi fighting for his life in intensive care, Perez admitted it was impossible to keep his mind completely focused on the job at the track.
“It’s one of those weekends that I never had in my whole career,” he explained. “You come into a weekend, a new circuit, such a nice place and you are not really bothered, you are not really interested in what’s going on.
“You only want to care about Jules. You want to hear some news on him, you look on the internet, you try to speak to the people in the paddock. So it’s not a normal weekend.”
Perez was, unsurprisingly, not the only driver who conceded that it was going to prove an emotionally difficult race weekend in Russia.
“I think it was a very tough race and obviously all our thoughts are with Jules and all our minds are there,” Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, a close friend of Bianchi’s, said in a sombre Drivers’ Press Conference later on Thursday.
“We have huge respect for our work, but when there is a big, big accident there are no words to describe how bad you can feel. It was a tough, tough weekend and right now we are here, but it will be a difficult weekend again – emotionally very difficult. We are ready to race and to race for him and be as professional as we can, but definitely my mind is with him in this moment and praying for him.”
Adrian Sutil, who saw Bianchi's devastating crash occur having already spun off at the same point of the circuit the lap before, added: "We have to pray right now, this is all we can do. We can hope that we get some better news. We are now here in Sochi in Russia, but there is a grey cloud over us. I try to be professional enough and focus on the race weekend again so it is good to get rid a little bit of this mood, but still it affects everyone and my thoughts are the same. We pray for the best and we race for him.”