It is 30 years since the death of Ayrton Senna. Sid Watkins, the man who tried to save him, was a close friend who led two safety revolutions within Formula 1.
As Gary Hartstein stood alongside Professor Sid Watkins, leaning on the roof of the medical car they shared, he was struggling to find the right words.Spa-Francorchamps had been tweaked from the previous year – a chicane had been introduced at Eau Rouge to slow the field. The grid was not the same as at the start of the season either; a young David Coulthard now partnering Damon Hill at Williams."There was a huge elephant in the car," Hartstein tells BBC Sport.
He had telephoned Watkins at the London Hospital and asked to see him later that day. Watkins was part of the medical panel that provided cover at the British Grand Prix, but it was the first time the pair had spoken. At the Anderstorp circuit, Watkins found there was no helicopter provided for practice because it was not considered dangerous compared with the race.At Brands Hatch for the British Grand Prix, he was faced with a small, ill-equipped medical centre staffed by two ambulanceman drinking beer.
"When Sid was asked by Bernie to come in, things were fairly dreadful and had been dreadful for a long time," he says. "Because this had never happened before, because this never existed before, it was incredibly hard," Hartstein says. "Doctors around the circuit, deployed in a certain way with a certain level of competency, ambulances, referral hospitals – the whole system that we take so for granted now, he had to create that.
Susan says: "He was quite nervous speaking to these boys and of course there was a full turnout of people there and they would stand up and say ‘Sir’, and Ayrton said ‘Please, please don’t call me Sir’. Asked to describe the relationship between Watkins and Senna, Susan says: "I think father-son. Sid was very paternal to a lot of the boys, the drivers, but he had a special relationship with Ayrton because he was such a nice young man. I don’t think his life was easy. The bond between them, I think he completely trusted Sid and he was comfortable with our family."
"Ayrton was way, way on the opposite end of that spectrum, A guy who's going to ask Sid about the medical questions after an accident. The fact that Ayrton felt a duty to care." Watkins stepped outside to answer his questions. Senna cried on Watkins’ shoulder as he realised Ratzenberger was beyond saving.
The next day, Senna, leading the race in his Williams, lost control at 190mph at the Tamburello corner and crashed into the wall, his helmet pierced by a suspension arm. Watkins was driven at speed to the accident and immediately joined the rescue effort; Senna’s helmet was removed, Watkins got an airway into his mouth and raised his eyelids. Watkins could see from Senna’s pupils that he had a massive brain injury and could not survive.
"I’d see him reminisce in a sad way about it, but he kept his emotions fairly in check," says Alistair. "You just can't say to someone like Ayrton Senna ‘why don't you just go fishing?’ That's the complexity of the man and what drives people to do stuff which seems reckless."Senna signs the visitors' book at the Jim Clark Motorsport Museum in Duns in February 1991 on a trip to visit Watkins
"Formula 1 was genuinely worried that it would go into a spiral of decline and the car manufacturers would pull out," says Alistair.
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