Driving for a back-of-the-field team in Formula One can be a demoralising experience: slow, off the pace, on the grid largely to be make up the numbers and expected not to get in the way of faster cars when being lapped.
It can also afford the opportunity to forge a reputation, as well as be a stepping stone for greater things – so long as something great can be achieved with below-par machinery.
Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber are among the recent top drivers who begun at the bottom of the ladder – their early efforts at Minardi eventually taking them to the top of the sport.
Jules Bianchi’s career had already shown a similar trajectory. His ninth-place finish in the Monaco Grand Prix in May last year was arguably the performance of the season.
Marussia were painfully slow, with no money and limited technical resources, yet Bianchi had consistently made decent use of the equipment available to him since his debut in 2013.
In Monaco, despite starting last on the grid, he came through the pack to be ninth. He did have luck with other cars having problems, but he still finished on the road and ahead of a Lotus, a McLaren and a Ferrari.
In fact he finished eighth, but lost five seconds because of a rules infringement and consequently a position.
It mattered little, though, as he had scored Marussia’s first points in F1.
It was not just Monaco where he impressed. He out-qualified his Marussia teammate Max Chilton in 29 of their 34 races together and, on 21 of those occasions, he was more than half a second faster, which is a huge gap in the minute margins of F1.
He was fourth quickest in first qualifying in the rain in Britain in 2014 and also had reached the second part of qualifying in wet conditions in Belgium as he seized on every chance to show what he could do on a more level playing field.
He had been marked as a talent from early on in his career and became a member of Ferrari’s young driver academy. He also had tested for them in 2011 as he competed in GP2.
A move to Sauber, who are powered by Ferrari engines, had been mooted for 2015 and a path to a drive with Ferrari in the future appeared to be a solid possibility.
Sadly, the events of Japan last October mean we will never know just how good Bianchi could have been and just how far his star would have risen had his career been allowed to play out.
As F1 comes to terms with Bianchi’s death its only consolation are the memories of a short, but bright, career in the top echelon of motorsport, floodlit by a magical afternoon in Monte Carlo in May 2014.
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