Jules Bianchi will be honoured in his home city of Nice, with the French city renaming a street after the former Formula 1 driver.
In 2012, Bianchi finished runner-up in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series title with Tech 1 Racing, before making his debut in F1 with Manor Marussia F1 Team a year later. Bianchi continued with Manor for the 2014 season, and he had the honour of securing Marussia’s first ever points finish when he finished ninth in the Monaco Grand Prix, but during the Japanese Grand Prix, he suffered a severe head injury in an incident that caused the race to be stopped.
In July 2015, Bianchi succumbed to his injuries and died in a Nice hospital aged only 25, becoming the first F1 driver to be killed by injuries sustained during a Grand Prix since Ayrton Senna. Bianchi’s family created the Jules Bianchi Society in April 2016, to help young patients and their families in local hospitals as well as supporting young karting drivers.
It was confirmed that the street located in front of the Allianz Riviera Stadium will be re-named to honour him, with a special ceremony being held on Monday 23 January at the corner of current ‘rue du Sapin’ and ‘avenue Pierre de Coubertin’.
Along with this, Tech 1 Racing announced that it would support the Society, by running the logo on its racing liveries in Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 in 2017.