In case you haven’t heard, longtime stellar F1 Medical ‘Guru Professor Sid Watkins has died at the age of 84 - yesterday in London
There are several excellent articles floating about Zed Internetz, including Grizzled ‘Journo Joe Saward’s Sid, which gives a more in-depth look at his upbringing; whilst I’ve included the Guardian’s story - where I first heard the news this morning for its insight upon his wicked modesty... Noting if the bums at his hospital called him Sid, then surely his protégé could!
F1 leads the tributes for Sid Watkins, its long-time medical delegate
As mentioned in the story above, it was ‘Prof who saved the lives of ‘Rubino, (Rubens Barrichello) Martin Donnelly, Mika Hakkinen and Gerhard “blockhead” Berger to name just a few... As I’d also assume he was instrumental in saving Karl Wendlinger’s life - not to mention countless others with his continuous push for driver safety on and off-track; be it Formula 1, GP2, F2, GP3 or the countless minor “Junior” series and grass-roots Formulaes.
Sadly, my most current memory of Dr. Watkins comes from the great SENNA documentary, with his famous quip to Ayrton Senna: “Lets just go fishing...” Prior to the Brazilian’s death on Black Sunday at Imola in 1994...
