Graeme Lowdon, who previously served as CEO and sporting director of the Marussia Formula 1 team between 2012 and 2015, has reflected on the “most difficult time” he had in the championship. The Briton was leading the Banbury-based outfit at the time of Jules Bianchi’s tragic death.
Today marks 10 years since Bianchi’s death, nine months on from a horrific crash during the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix. The French driver collided with a recovery vehicle in extreme wet weather conditions at the Suzuka Circuit. As a result of his severe injuries, he was placed into an induced coma and sadly passed away on 17 July 2015.
“The most difficult time I’ve had in the sport was definitely 2014 and then leading into 2015. Actually, the whole of 2015,” Lowdon explained during an appearance on the High Performance podcast.
“The worst thing that can happen in this game, without any question, is that the highs are high and the lows are desperately low. It’s not about losing a championship or anything like that. It’s when people get hurt,” Lowdon, who is now leading the upcoming Cadillac F1 team for its 2026 debut as team principal, continued.
“And it can happen not just to drivers, but we’re dealing with a large number of people traveling around the world. And when someone in your team is hurt, it’s horrible.
“So we end up in Suzuka in 2014. Very challenging weather conditions. And Jules had had his accident there and quite quickly we’re in a scenario where you’ve got a driver very badly injured.”
Reflecting on the moment he realised that Bianchi had crashed into the recovery vehicle, Lowdon explained, “As soon as I saw that, I thought, ‘No, this isn’t going to be good at all.’ But you really have no idea what’s happening at that stage.
Jules Bianchi, Marussia
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images
“And we get no reply [over the team radio], which is not good. But equally, the car could have been switched off or something like that. So you still don’t know completely what the outcome is.
“Then I remember jumping off the pitwall and going to the medical centre quite quickly. And the medical centre at Suzuka is pretty easy to get to actually, which was good. But everything was kind of shut down. We couldn’t get in. Nobody could get in.
“But when we knew it was bad, we knew he’d be transferred to hospital. So myself and John Booth, who ran the team with me, jumped in a car and headed off to the hospital.”
F1 CEO at the time, Bernie Ecclestone, arranged for Bianchi’s family to be flown out to be by his side at the hospital in Japan.
“The family came out and I still think of it now. What would they think when they’re getting on the plane back in France and then heading out to Japan? Takes a long time to get there. When you land in Japan there’s another journey. It’s quite different from Europe. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like for them, heading out to the unknown.
“There’s a lot of responsibility when you’re in that position. And I remember when they arrived at the hospital… As a parent, I can’t imagine what they could be thinking. And yet they come in the room and all they’re concerned about is how are we. Really, it was… I’ve never talked about it actually. You learn a lot from stuff like that.”
He added, “My number one priority then was the family. I’m not a doctor. When something like this happens you think, ‘Why did I study engineering?’
Graeme Lowdon in the Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber garage
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
“I cannot help in that. You feel helpless. I can’t help. I wish I was a doctor. I wish I could go and fix this. There are perfectly good doctors there but you don’t think that way at the time. Emotionally, I mean, this is not logical thinking; this is emotional thinking.
“Here’s somewhere where, at the minute, the only people who can really help Jules are the doctors. But I guess you think, what can we do?
“And what we could do is just try and ensure that the family were given accurate information. So I think we threw ourselves into that role to ensure that the family were fully informed. That they had the reassurance that it was the best medical attention and everything else.
“I don’t think we left the hospital for a few days. Just found a corner just like this and slept on the floor. I remember leaving a few days later. I still had my team kit on from race day.
“And you walk out into the sunshine and it’s only then that things actually hit home. Jules was in a really difficult position. And we just had to do everything we possibly could to help him and help the family.”
The team was faced with the issue that it was a back-to-back race with the Russian Grand Prix. After repairing the car and preparing reserve driver Alexander Rossi, the team opted to run just the one car.
Lowdon, who ultimately left the team at the end of 2015 after a new owner wanted to take the team in a different direction, added that the team brought out wristbands at the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix in Bianchi’s memory – something that he has not removed since. The significance of the race in Monte Carlo came the year prior when Bianchi scored the team’s first championship points with a ninth-place finish.
“In the end, we decided to do these wristbands for everyone on the team and only the people on the team. We didn’t give them out. We got them made, and it says Monaco 2014 P8. Anyone who looks back on Google, you’ll see P9 because we did get a penalty. Our view P8,” he said with a smile. “And then it says #JB17.
“So we gave everyone on the team these, and the idea was if you’re a mechanic working on the car, you’ll think at that race we want to perform as well as we can for the drivers we had then, but everyone working on the car can have a little look down whenever they need to and just have a reminder that we’re thinking about Jules, he’s in hospital only a few miles away.”
He concluded, “I’ve never taken this off since 2015. And if you look in the paddock today, you’ll see other people in other teams [wearing them].”
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