Bianchi’s breakthrough F1 season – in his personal phrases

Some individuals consider Marseille as bandit nation. There's some justification for this. As a port it has many connections… some shady.

Out within the bay lies the traditional French equal of Alcatraz, the Chateau d'If, the place the fictional Rely of Monte Cristo was incarcerated.

A tangled knot of streets lead away from the well-known Vieux Port, the pure harbour the place Greek seafarers first landed practically 3,000 years in the past. Buildings butt up edgily towards each other, forming darkish alleys that result in nowhere. The facades are a combination of tatty, light glamour and nonchalant decay, offset right here and there by new developments that exude a type of defiant optimism.

Within the opening sequence of The French Connection, a detective tailing a suspect takes espresso at a Marseille quayside cafe – a vista now dominated by an enormous mirror-finish cover, designed by Sir Norman Foster – then meanders up an more and more slender net of cobbled streets to the seedy Le Panier district, the place he's gunned down within the entrance to his own residence.

No marvel the town has develop into the go-to location for film-makers trying to sketch an prompt portrait of Euro-grittiness and hazard. However that is additionally the place that Marussia F1 rookie Jules Bianchi calls his home-from-home. Whereas he formally resides in Switzerland, he enjoys spending time right here, on the coast of the area the place he grew up.

“I feel it's like anyplace, any huge metropolis,” says Bianchi, with simply the tiniest trace of defensiveness. “There are dangerous locations the place you don't wish to go. However in case you have been to go to London… I don't know the place, however there have to be some areas there you wouldn't wish to go to. You hear about issues that occur right here, however I've by no means really seen something violent or stunning. Possibly I've simply been fortunate however, for the second, I haven't seen something like that…”

We're lunching within the welcome shade of the Radisson Blu resort's restaurant terrace, a coolly trendy however discreet quayside constructing that doesn't attempt to stand out from the older ones round it. One minute you're skipping over the open gutter and dodging previous the plastic chairs of an unconvincing ‘Irish' pub, stealing a fast look up a darkish alleyway lit solely by the garish neon signal of a tattoo parlour, then out of the blue you're in 2013 European Metropolis Of Tradition Marseille, all clear glass and recent paint.

A well mannered however agency wall of pot vegetation and chrome tubes retains itinerants and tat-vendors at bay.

Bianchi, 24, was born in Good however his household then moved to Hole, the alpine commune the place Rui Costa received the sixteenth stage of this 12 months's centennial Tour de France, earlier than settling in close by Brignoles when Jules was 12. Papa Bianchi ran the native kart monitor.

“I like Monaco as a result of I've associates there. And my supervisor [Nicolas Todt] has a home in Switzerland, so it's handy for me to dwell there. However I additionally prefer it right here,” Jules explains. “I grew up in lots of locations, however all the time on this space [Provence] – and it's good, ? You've got the ocean, and the mountains aren't distant: you've got the whole lot it's good to have enjoyable. It's nice.”

Fairly like his non secular dwelling, Jules has a repute for hazard that he's attempting to shake off. Canvas opinion from these he's labored with within the junior formulae, and the suggestions is fairly constant: Jules is a brilliant, enjoyable, easy-going and grounded man with no pretensions. Fast, too.

Underneath the wing of Nicolas Todt's All Street Administration, he received the Formulation 3 Euro Sequence in 2009 and was signed up by the Ferrari Driver Academy. Hearsay had it that he'd be a shoo-in to switch Felipe Massa at Ferrari earlier than too lengthy, however as soon as in GP2 he bought his elbows out quite too ceaselessly and all too quickly he'd develop into final 12 months's ‘Subsequent Large Factor'.

“Jules is fast,” one GP2 insider advised F1 Racing, “however he doesn't look in his mirrors.”

Within the first of the 2 GP2 races supporting the 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix, Jules had an innocuous-looking accident that would have ended his profession. Sweeping exuberantly across the outdoors on the first nook, he tapped the rear wing of Giacomo Ricci, then bravely saved his foot on the throttle whereas gathering the ensuing twitch. His trajectory took him over the concrete run-off, the place his bravura on the loud pedal was rewarded with a pointy spin again onto the monitor, into the face of coming visitors.

“It wasn't that unhealthy,” he says. “I broke one vertebra and one other one was – how do you say – ‘scratched'? I had an operation in Hungary and after three weeks we went to Spa and I drove once more, so I didn't lose any alternatives to attain aside from in Hungary [having crashed out of the first race, he couldn't start the second].

“It didn't hurt my season although, as a result of I nonetheless completed third within the championship, and it was my first 12 months in GP2.

“It was a superb season. After that,” he pauses meditatively and rearranges his salad together with his fork. “Effectively, it doesn't change something actually, the actual fact I had this crash. I haven't had any extra operations and I don't have any ongoing issues with my again.”

However he did have ongoing issues together with his profession prospects. Pastor Maldonado (additionally managed by Nicolas Todt) and Sergio Perez completed forward of him in 2010 and made the leap to F1, whereas Jules stayed for a second season of GP2, which additionally resulted in third place. It wasn't nice, but it surely might have been worse: by Valencia, the fourth of 9 race weekends, he'd managed only one podium end and three retirements. He realised one thing needed to change.

“Yeah, for certain I've improved,” he sighs. “There may be all the time room for enchancment. That first 12 months in GP2, I had simply received in Formulation 3 the earlier 12 months and I wished to win once more. And really it's not as simple as that.

“I used to be simply too targeted on getting the victory. I used to be fast over a single lap, fast within the races on a regular basis, however I used to be making errors and crashing. The second 12 months, I began in the identical method and it was improper.

“I made errors and crashed once more. At one level I used to be P15 within the championship. It was my second 12 months of racing in GP2, so it was fairly unhealthy.

“After that, I fully modified my thoughts and my method of driving in races. I believed rather more about factors and fewer about victory – despite the fact that I'd all the time wish to win, after all. I did numerous work with Ferrari on the psychological aspect and that was helpful. It bought quite a bit higher.

“I had a superb finish to the season and completed third within the championship. And I had a superb 12 months in World Sequence [by Renault] in 2012. Possibly some individuals nonetheless suppose I'm undecided within the races, however I've modified. I've proven I could be constant and rating factors. It's not a difficulty anymore; I've grown up.”

Thankfully for Jules, the second Ferrari seat didn't fall vacant at that time. Massa (additionally managed by Nicolas Todt) held on to his place – partly by means of benefit, partly as a result of the staff didn't wish to provoke its lead driver's ire by putting in a younger hotshot within the quantity two spot. There have been talks with Mark Webber that in the end got here to nothing.

In the meantime, Jules rehabilitated his profession all through 2012 with a powerful marketing campaign in World Sequence by Renault – anybody who has to do greater than two years of GP2 is just about a busted flush as far as F1 bigwigs are involved, except they arrive loaded with sponsorship – and 9 F1 follow outings as Drive India's third driver.

Even earlier than then he'd been quietly making ready for his F1 shot, because of the Ferrari Driver Academy.

“I began with Ferrari on the finish of 2009, after successful my title in Formulation 3, but it surely was 2010 after we actually began to work collectively. I used to be in a position to do numerous testing within the two-year-old automobile, and that has been actually helpful due to the testing restrictions. It's actually troublesome for a younger driver to get the expertise, to discover ways to drive a Formulation 1 automobile. Even in case you're doing GP2 or World Sequence, it's not the identical.

“So it was an ideal assist for me to have this chance. I've labored quite a bit on the simulator, too, and achieved psychological and bodily coaching with them. It's a giant work collectively, yeah.

“I used to go much more. Final 12 months, after I was the third driver for Drive India, I couldn't go to their manufacturing facility and use their simulator as a result of I used to be doing the Ferrari simulator. And this 12 months I'm doing much less due to my involvement with Marussia, which is the main focus of most of my time. It's vital to work with the staff.”

At first of 2013 his profession hung within the stability as soon as extra. Drive India had carried out a rigorous audit of Bianchi's and Adrian Sutil's earlier kind as a way of forecasting which driver would do the higher job in a race seat in 2013. The staff was trapped: having completed properly in 2012 it wanted to take care of its place within the pecking order, in order to rake in an honest share of the TV cash at season's finish.

Given the well-publicised monetary pressures elsewhere in staff proprietor Vijay Mallya's empire, self-sufficiency was key. The rookie's repute for wildness went earlier than him, and the skilled Sutil bought the nod.

“We have been ready for a solution from them,” says Jules, “and it got here actually late – and it was the improper reply for us! It was a troublesome second.

“I discovered on the Wednesday earlier than the ultimate pre-season check, then on the Thursday Ferrari rang to inform me to go to Barcelona. Possibly there can be an opportunity with one other staff. However I didn't know something, so I didn't have the prospect to consider what I used to be going to do.

“Truthfully, despite the fact that I'm nonetheless younger, whenever you've been the third driver with one staff, after which they are saying no to you for a race seat, and also you don't even have the chance to be the third driver once more, it's not likely helpful. I really imagine Formulation 1 would have been completed for me.

“I'm actually fortunate to have been given this chance with Marussia.”

Armed with a much-improved Marussia, Jules has rammed dwelling the purpose that he's now a protected pair of arms, having retired from solely two rounds (on the time of writing, post-Singapore) this 12 months, each instances by means of mechanical failure quite than driver mind fade. And whereas nobody driving for this under-resourced staff might anticipate to be difficult for podiums, there are indicators that expectations are being re-mapped.

“It's a special technique to strategy a race,” he says. “I do know I received't be going for a podium or perhaps not even Q2 – we managed it in Spa however that's as a result of the situations have been particular, ? So I've completely different targets now. We wish to beat Caterham and in the meanwhile that's trying like a sensible goal. It's a victory after we're forward of them.

“It's crucial, not simply due to the cash [that comes from a higher placing in the constructors' championship], but in addition to indicate a transparent enchancment, for the individuals on the manufacturing facility who've been working so arduous. Now we have to push to enhance our efficiency. We must be in Q2 extra typically and lead extra within the race.”

Was {that a} coded message? Marussia has slipped again on relative tempo as groups round it discover higher growth good points. And Jules will face an growing stage of scrutiny because the staff builds its relationship with Ferrari, utilizing a Maranello drivetrain from 2014 onwards.

For now, the prospect to slide into Massa's not too long ago vacated seat might have receded, following information of Kimi Raikkonen's return to the Scuderia. However the Finn has been signed on a one-year contract solely, with an possibility for 2015.

“I don't really feel any stress,” says Jules. “That is my first 12 months in Formulation 1 and I wish to keep so long as doable, so I don't wish to put an excessive amount of stress on myself. I've time. I'm younger. And I can enhance. I wish to take issues step-by-step, I'm completely happy at Marussia and I wish to do the perfect for them. I don't see why I ought to go away.”

As we half firm we go our separate methods on foot, neither of us hailing a taxi. Effectively, you've seen the movie…