- Toro Rosso
Vergne: I'm racing for Jules
Jean-Eric Vergne says he is racing only for Jules Bianchi at this weekend's Russian Grand Prix.
Bianchi remains in hospital with severe brain trauma after his accident at the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend. Vergne said the main thing keeping him motivated during such a difficult time is his compatriot and he is hoping to score a good result for the Marussia driver.
"You can question yourself, what's the point of trying to fight with each other this weekend, trying to fight for the last point or the last tenth? But the only answer that I found is that I have to do it for Jules. I will not race for myself, I will not race for the team but for him this weekend.
"That's what gives me the motivation and the will. We are professional drivers and that's what we do, and that's what we're going to do this weekend.
"I really want to make a fantastic weekend for him. I will give my absolute everything for this, and that's all I can say. I want to do things properly."
The FIA is in the process of investigating the accident in order to learn lessons and make changes to improve safety in the sport. One suggestion has been to deploy a safety car whenever a recovery vehicle is on track, which Vergne supports.
"[The FIA] have made massive progress over the last twenty years on safety in F1, but F1 cars are not designed to hit tractors. So I think we should just simply not race when there is a tractor. This rule of a yellow flag to go slower; we were going slower anyway by two seconds, it was raining a lot more."
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