Marussia driver Bianchi will keep fighting, says father

Critically injured French Formula One driver Jules Bianchi will not give up his fight for life but the situation remains desperate, his father Philippe said on Tuesday.

Speaking to Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper in Yokkaichi, Japan, where the Marussia driver is in intensive care, Bianchi senior said he still had hope he would be able to take his son home one day.

"The situation is desperate. Every time the phone rings we know it could be the hospital to say Jules is dead," he told the newspaper.

"But first they said the first 24 hours were crucial, then it became 72 and now we are still here, with Jules who is fighting.

"I see it, I believe it, I speak to him, I know he hears me. The doctors have said that is already a miracle, that nobody has ever survived such a serious accident. But Jules does not give up."

Bianchi has been in hospital since he crashed into a recovery tractor in the wet at the Japanese Grand Prix on October 5. He has been in a 'critical but stable' condition ever since.

The driver's parents, brother and sister have been at his bedside for the past week while representatives of Ferrari and Marussia have also been on hand.

The Gazzetta said FIA medical commission president Gerard Saillant and Italian professor Alessandro Frati, who flew to Japan after the crash, had returned to Europe after assuring the family that Bianchi was getting the best possible care.

The driver's father said the family were living a nightmare, in unfamiliar surroundings and without knowing what the future might hold.

"Maybe when Jules is better ... we can move him to Tokyo and things will be easier. But who knows when that will happen, if it happens. We have no certainties, we can only wait," he said.

"One day he seems a little better, another a bit worse. The doctors don't say, the damage in the impact was great but they don't know how it will evolve."

SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS

Philippe Bianchi said he took hope from the case of seven times world champion Michael Schumacher, who suffered a severe head injury while skiing in France last year and is now being treated at home.

"Even with Schumacher it took months before he came out of the coma, but I have read that Jean Todt hopes he could have a nearly normal life. One day I hope to be able to say the same."

He thanked Formula One drivers for their support, with all of them standing in a silent circle before last Sunday's Russian Grand Prix in a mark of respect for their stricken colleague.

"So many people have written to me, I will reply," he said. "(Jean-Eric) Vergne, (Fernando) Alonso, (Felipe) Massa have had strong thoughts. (Lewis) Hamilton sent a lovely email saying if he could do anything he was there for us."

Formula One officials have prepared a report into the accident and have made safety proposals, including automatic speed limits and possibly equipping the recovery tractors and cranes with 'skirts' in future.

Former world champion Alain Prost has been particularly scathing about the use of such recovery vehicles, telling reporters in Russia at the weekend he was furious about what had happened.

"I don't want to make any polemics with the FIA, because I have a lot of respect for what has been done in terms of safety over the past 20 years," said the Frenchman.

"It is cars and tracks (that have been made safer) and there was only one thing left: It was this ... truck on the track."

Image: Jules Bianchi of France and Marussia

Photograph: Clive Rose/Getty Images