Grapevine: Ferrari teach doctors about teamwork

Chief race engineer Luca Baldisserri represented the Italian squad at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department of the Sandro Pertini hospital in Rome, where Ferrari were invited by the department director Massimo Giovannini to let doctors understand the concept of teamwork at critical times.

"The aim of Baldisserri's speech was to let doctors understand the concept of team in a crisis situation," Giovannini told Gazzetta dello Sport. "Their team rehearses emergencies obsessively and the results are there to see.

"In our case, we are able to make an emergency operation in less than 12 minutes, which is the maximum time allowed by the World Health Organization, but if we managed at every change of shift to try out and rehearse our check list, like the Ferrari mechanics do, then I'm certain that amount of time will further decrease."

Baldisserri, in his speech titled 'Anatomy of a pitstop', said: "What's at stake between the birth of a human being and a tyre pit stop is incomparable, but the work of a medical team in critical cases can have similar requirements to a pitstop in F1.

"Professor Giovannini contacted us in order to supply some notions of our work during the delicate operations of tyre changing and refuelling, which can turn useful for doctors during crisis situations.

"The communication among the various players must be the quickest possible at all times, so every element must follow to perfection the check list which, in our case, gets tried and rehearsed before the event.

"Every action must be executed always in the same way, with the same automatisms. Even if everyone carries out different tasks, the objective is common and that's what makes up a team."

It was not the first time Ferrari have shared their expertise with a hospital, as Baldisserri had already given a similar speech in London a few months ago.