Ex-Formula One medical chief Sid Watkins dies

LONDON -- Sid Watkins, the former Formula One medical chief credited with saving the lives of several race drivers and introducing major safety improvements in the series, has died. He was 84.

Team officials and Watkins' family said the English neurosurgeon died on Wednesday; an F1 statement describing him as a "safety pioneer."

Watkins was at the forefront of F1 safety for 26 years and served as medical delegate from 1978 to 2004.

"Many drivers and ex-drivers owe their lives to his careful and expert work, which resulted in the massive advances in safety levels that today's drivers possibly take for granted," McLaren chairman Ron Dennis said.

"No, he wasn't a driver. No, he wasn't an engineer. No, he wasn't a designer. He was a doctor and it's probably fair to say that he did more than anyone, over many years, to make Formula One as safe as it is today."

As a trackside doctor, the man known as "The Prof" was credited with helping save the lives of Finland's two-time F1 champion Mika Hakkinen, Austrian Gerhard Berger and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, among others, after crashes.

He tended to Ayrton Senna after the three-time champion's fatal crash at Imola in 1994. Senna was the last F1 driver to die during a race, with Watkins' tireless safety campaigning and push to improve the standard of medical facilities widely regarded as the main factor behind the improved measures since then. There are now universal standards in medical centers at circuits and a medical helicopter is mandatory at all F1 races.

After his F1 medical career, Watkins retired in 2005 but continued to campaign for safety improvements in motor sport through his role as the first president of the FIA Institute for Motor Sport Safety.