Lamenting the death of Jules Bianchi, Bernie Ecclestone says that whilst still dangerous, F1 is now safer than ever.

"If you were to choose to have an accident today in anything, you'd choose a Formula One car because it's probably the safest it's ever been," Ecclestone told BBC radio, as the world comes to terms with the death of the youngster, the first driver to perish following an accident in an F1 race since Ayrton Senna in 1994.

"What actually happened to Jules was just very, very, very unfortunate," the F1 supremo continued. "Of course it's dangerous, they have 20 races a year, so you see how many accidents there are. We do our best, always have done our best, for driver safety."

Bianchi died nine months after a freak accident during the Japanese Grand Prix when his car hit a recovery vehicle in torrential rain.

"The tractor should never have been there," admitted Ecclestone. "We've done an awful lot of work to make sure that if a car does go off and hits something, they hit the tyre barriers or whatever, then its all OK. Hitting that thing, it wouldn't make any difference if you'd hit it with a saloon car, if you'd hit it with a tank you'd have had problems.

"It's just a shame to lose such a talented guy at his age, and such a nice person. What happened was just tragic," he concluded. "I hope he'll be remembered the way he was as a driver and a person, not because he had an accident."

Bianchi's family has revealed that the 25-year-old will be laid to rest on Tuesday following a service at the Sainte Reparate Cathedral in Nice.