Philippe Bianchi describes the “daily torture” of Jules' recovery from his accident

In an interview with the media today, Jules Bianchi's father Philippe Bianchi has described the “daily torture” that the family goes through since his son's accident, adding they are now “less optimistic” about his recovery.

Jules suffered a diffuse axonal injury to the head when his car left the Suzuka track and crashed into a recovery vehicle at the Japanese Grand Prix on 5 October 2014. He remains in a coma in a Nice hospital and statistics show that 90 percent of people with these types of traumatic brain injuries do not wake up from it.

In an interview with the media today, Philippe admits it is a daily battle for the family. He states the following about his son's condition:-

'It's unbearable, it is a daily torture, it sometimes seems crazy because for me, it is certainly worse than if he had died in the accident. Because we don't have the power to help him more.

'In general, progress must be made in the first six months and it has been nine months and Jules is still not awake and there is no significant progress. The passing time, it makes me less optimistic than I was two or three months after the accident, when we were hoping for a better outcome.'

The Bianchi family continues to keep a vigil at his bedside, but Philippe says they need to discuss the “grave situation” they are facing. Philippe added the following:-

'It's hard to get up in the morning saying that you are not sure if your son will live and every day it's like that. At some point, you have to have feet on the ground and realise how grave the situation is.'

Should Bianchi come out of his coma, his father revealed that his son would not want to live the rest of his life with a disability. His father added the following in the latter stages of his interview today as follows:-

'If he has severe disabilities we are convinced that this is not at all what Jules wants. We talked about it. He told us that if he happened one day an accident similar to that of Michael Schumacher, even if it was just a handicap that would have prevented him from driving, it would have been very difficult for him to live with it. Because driving was his life.'

Even though the news from Jules' father today isn't as positive as we would like all they can do is make the best of the situation, keep continuing to support him in the best way possible as they have been doing and just hope that Jules makes the best recovery that he can through this difficult time.

As always, everyone at Driving for Pleasure's thoughts and prayers are with Jules, his family, friends and colleagues at this sad and difficult time. We are as a community all united and we all think about Jules every day and we are all behind you; no matter how long it takes.* #ForzaJules*

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa