On September 12th, at the age of 84, Sid Watkins, the world-renowned neurosurgeon has died after suffering a heart attack.
The world of motor sport and in particular Formula One bids farewell to the former medical delegate.
Watkins was the on-track surgeon for 26 years from 1978 through to 2004, with his crusade to improve medical facilities in Formula One helping to dramatically cut the number of deaths and serious injuries in the sport
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-2202554/Sid-Watkins-dies-tributes-pour-F1-surgeon.html#ixzz26MdVppLI
Following Watkins retirement Max Mosley said
Professor Watkins has made a unique contribution to improving the standards of safety and medical intervention throughout motor sport.
Many drivers probably owe their lives to the Prof, both to his efforts as a first responder on the circuits and to the improvements that he instigated. Amongst those he helped to save are Gerhard Berger, Martin Donnelly, Érik Comas, Mika Häkkinen, Rubens Barrichello and Karl Wendlinger.
Watkins was married with six children and my thoughts are with his family.
WrAnTz 
Along those lines, if you haven’t seen this already you might be interested:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00z8v18/Grand_Prix_The_Killer_Years/
Available until Tuesday.
Yes I did see that. Very enlightening and also very scary. Those guys really did put their lives on the line every time they got in their cars and with the limited medical coverage around the circuits the chances of survival, if something were to go wrong, were slim. Thankfully the design of the modern racing cars, the safety features designed into the circuits and the medical facilities have all been improved beyond all recognition. The “Prof” was a significant contributor.