[wnut]

Originally Posted by garcon

I beseech anybody who hasn't yet read it to find a copy of Prof's book, "Life at the Limit: Triumph and Tragedy in Formula One."

Not only is it a rivetting story of his time in F1, with several laugh out loud anecdotes (most of which seem to involve 'Our Nige'... ), it is a personal and ultimately heartbreaking reflection on his close relationship with Ayrton Senna, and by definition an authoritative account of the improvement in F1 medical safety under his tenure.

Thanks for posting garcon - much appreciated.

It would appear that Bernies' influence isn't entirely negative.

"Bernie said to him: 'Now, I'm going to go down and stand in front of the cars while you settle this problem with Prof Watkins. And if it's settled, he's going to lean out and put his thumb up – and if it isn't settled, he's going to put his thumb down.' Hushke said to him: 'Mr Ecclestone, what am I going to do with 80,000 Germans in the Motordrome?' Bernie turned round and said: 'They can go **** themselves.' Well, the problem was settled immediately.
"Once word spread that this was how tough Bernie was going to be about medical safety, the dominos started to fall and everybody started to give in. He's absolutely marvellous, old Bernie, absolutely wonderful, always a great realist. Without him, nothing would have happened. At least, not in my time. He was always so good and so tough."
By 1982, circuits had proper medical centres; a helicopter on standby for the entire race weekend, and a top hospital always on-call to provide further treatment once a driver had been stabilised."

The best quote I can remember from Sid was something to the effect of; "I held up fingers for the driver to count, and when he was right I began to worry because he couldn't normally be expected to get it right!"