Speeding For SafetyAlex Zanardi's near-fatal crash in the Lausitzring CART race and Luciano Burti's high-speed shunt at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa both underscored the effectiveness of modern racing safety systems. Not just the design of the cars and tracks, but also of the medical response teams that speed to the scene of such crashes.
Without the ability to get expert trauma physicians to the victims extremely quickly, drivers like Zanardi, and Hakkinen in his crash in Australia in 1995, would not survive.
These rapid-response teams are a recent innovation. Critical to the timely response is a fast car and a capable driver to deliver the doctor to the scene of the crash.
"We like to respond within 3 minutes," said Professor Sid Watkins. "If you don't get to someone within 4 minutes, and they have a problem with their blood pressure or their airway, then they are likely to start to sustain brain damage. It took 2 minutes, 2 1/2 minutes to get to Hakkinen. Then we opened his windpipe [with a tracheotomy]."
Professor Sid Watkins is Formula One's top doctor, and retired F1 pilot Alex Ribeiro is charged with chauffeuring him as quickly and safely as possible to his patients. Before retiring in 1979, Ribeiro drove for the Fittipaldi, Hesketh and March teams. After F1, Ribeiro says he spent some time in Brazilian saloon cars and Formula 3 racing. Now he does only an annual celebrity kart race in France.
The dedicated medical driving service evolved slowly. Promoters at each event would provide their own cars and drivers for the medical teams. Ribeiro started driving during that period 10 years ago, as the medical car driver for the Brazilian Grand Prix. He took over from Wilson Fittipaldi, who had done the job previously.
"Normally, Wilson Fittipaldi was driving [Dr. Watkins], but when Christian started driving in Formula One, Wilson said he didn't want to do it anymore," recalled Ribeiro. "Then I used to drive Sid around in Brazil," he said. "At that stage we used very cheap cars. Normally the company that was sponsoring the Grand Prix would give the cars, if it was Ford or Fiat. They were production cars."
But in 1998, Mercedes-Benz began providing speedy AMG-modified cars to serve as the medical cars. Such cars could get Watkins to the crash scene more quickly, but they also had greater potential to cause their own crash scene if they weren't driven correctly.
"I told Sid, you need a proper driver," Ribeiro said, "because in the past he had a different driver for each Grand Prix. Sometimes he had some very fast drivers, sometimes he just had someone who said, 'Okay, I'll drive him around.' I said, 'With those very fast Mercedes, you need to have a professional,' and he asked if I would consider doing the job."
So since the '99 season, Ribeiro has been instrumental in helping fellow racers in distress. He counts Schumacher's crash at Silverstone in '99, Pedro Diniz's shunt at the Nfrburgring that left his car upside down, and a couple crashes during Formula 3000 races (which the team also supports) as times when his speedy service was most helpful.
The most serious crash in Formula One this past season was when Burti's Prost augered almost straight into a four-deep tire wall at 180 mph after colliding with Eddie Irvine's Jaguar. "It took 2 minutes and 45 seconds [to get to the scene]," said Ribeiro. "I was going balls out all the time. The problem was his accident was very far from where we were standing. I got there as fast as I could. Before I could get there, the other intervention vehicle was already there with doctors and medics. But I have Dr. Watkins in my car.
"Sid works on the theory that if he can get to the injured driver within 2 minutes, the chance he can save his life is 90-percent greater," Ribeiro observed. "If he is bleeding or has a breathing arrest or even a heart arrest, they can revive him before he becomes brain damaged. Hakkinen was saved by Sid."
The medical car job lets Ribeiro travel the world with the Formula One circus, keeps him in a supply of fast cars to drive, and lets him chat with pretty young women in the paddock, as he was when we spoke with him. And, occasionally, he gets to help save a driver's life.