Watkins Looks Back with Ache but Ahead with Hope

Going into the British Grand Prix, the FIA's chief medical officer and neuro-surgeon, Professor Sid Watkins, recalls the moments after Michael Schumacher's accident two years ago, when the German broke his leg at Silverstone.

"Schuey had his helmet off and there was already a doctor with him," the much revered and loved 72-years old Watkins told Brian Viner of the Independent. "He said, as cool as a cucumber, 'don't worry Sid, it's just a broken leg.' I spoke to him the following day in hospital, then on the Friday my portable phone went. It was Schuey, to say thanks very much for all I'd done."

Watkins has only warm words for Michael Schumacher. "He gets so much adverse press, but I find him to be a thoroughly decent guy," Watkins said. "And they all do these naughty things to each other on the track. Niki Lauda says it is only because there are so many TV cameras now that people see it. He says they always tried to drive each other off the road."

Schumacher's accident was only one of many Watkins had attended to since he became the FIA's neuro-surgeon in 1978. But to a large extent, it was one of many where a driver's life was spared, thanks to the efforts lead by Watkins to improve drivers safety and medical attention on track.

"[There is] at every track a proper medical centre equipped to intensive care unit standards at a major trauma hospital," Watkins counts the legacy he would leave behind when he leaves the sport. "An insistence on the use of helicopters, because where there are large crowds and jammed roads, ambulances aren't quick enough even with police escorts; and the instigation everywhere of rapid response medical vehicles with a resuscitation specialist in each car. We have four or five at each grand prix, and if you think that the lap time of a saloon car driven pretty quickly is maybe three minutes, and you have five cars spaced around the circuit, then no more than 30 seconds should elapse before it reaches the scene of an accident."

Above all, Watkins says, he remains a motor racing fan. "I've heard it said that it is so safe now they shouldn't pay the drivers such sums of money, and of course it is very much safer than it was, but it is still very dangerous. We've tried to cater for everything we can think of, but there is always the unexpected. And it's certainly not dull. It's terrifying.

"It looks dull on telly because you get no sense of speed. But I sat on the outside of the circuit at Magny-Cours two weeks ago, at the end of the pit straight, where there's a big left-hand corner. My car was on the inside of the wall - for protection, although a wheel or even a car can always come over the top - and their speed as they went into that corner surprised even me. They take it flat, missing the wall by a few inches. It's an absolutely stupefying speed and line, and I know they go flat out through there because Schumacher told me."

Six drivers were killed since Watkins has been in charge. The last of them was also one of his closest friends in the sport, albeit the age difference, Brazilian World Champion Ayrton Senna. "We just got on," Watkins says, "right from the start. We had a lot of fun together."

Senna's death prompted Watkins to lead a research team into further improving the drivers' safety and reducing fatalities in a sport that constantly saw faster and faster lap times. "The biggest advance we have made is in the area of head and neck protection," says Watkins.

"In collaboration with the Transport Research Laboratory we found a foam called Confor, a material which came out of the space programme. It's what astronauts lie in when they take off, because it doesn't bottom out. And the drivers wear a U-shaped collar, filled with this Confor. It has undoubtedly saved lives. Verstappen had a huge accident at Spa, and Salo at Spa, and Frentzen would have had serious head injuries in Canada two years ago instead of mild concussion." And Senna? "I suppose his head might not have impacted the back of the cockpit with the same impact as it did."

Watkins now runs a charity organisation in aid of the Brain and Spine Foundation. At the Canadian Grand Prix he collected several thousand dollars in an auction organised by Grand Prix Tours which featured, among other items, Watkins's own FIA helmet for the past twenty years, signed by all the Formula One drivers. Watkins's next charity event, The Grand Prix Party, will be held in February 2002. For ticket and sponsorship details, contact +44 (0) 1704 539-746.