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Toyota’s Timo Glock is attended to by medical staff and marshalls after crashing during qualifying for the Japanese Formula One Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit on October 3, 2009 in Suzuka, Japan.
Silverstone’s chief medical officer Dr. Ian Roberts has been announced as the man who will replace Dr. Gary Hartstein, who, in turn, replaced Prof. Sid Watkins in 2005. The announcement was made on the eve of Prof. Watkins’ memorial in London.
After the end of the 2012 season, Dr. Hartstein was sacked without clear reasons being given and he was very infuriated due to the same. He even threatened to make public what was “really” going on, related to medical matters, inside the FIA.
But after Dr. Roberts’ appointment, Dr. Hartstein congratulated him on Twitter and said he would have shortlisted the new F1 medic as he was a “really good doctor, skilled leader, great guy”.
F1 medics, nowadays, have a much easier job to do just because of one man – Prof. Watkins. He was the chief of the medical team (and later FIA’s medical delegate for F1) at races from 1978 until 2004 and in that time, he contributed hugely towards safety in F1. During his tenure, the deaths were significantly reduced but unfortunately he couldn’t save the life of his best friend Ayrton Senna and that really spurred him to step up his campaign for safety a notch and as a result. Since then, there hasn’t been a single death of an F1 driver on track. There have been some critical moments such as Felipe Massa in Hungary, 2009 or Sergio Perez in Monaco, 2011 but the raised safety standards brought into effect by Prof. Watkins now provide excellent first aid and take the injured driver to the nearby hospital before things get serious.
Coming back to Dr. Roberts, he will be reporting to FIA’s F1 medical delegate Prof. Jean-Charles Piette. According to the official statement,
“While Professor Piette will oversee emergency operations from race control, Dr Roberts will deploy to the track. His primary role there is to supervise the response of the local medical team.””
