When Watkins arrived in F1 in 1978, deaths were commonplace, with at least one driver dying during a race most years.
Watkins' job was to reduce that fatality rate.
He was employed by Bernie Ecclestone, then owner of the Brabham team and chief executive of the F1 Constructors' Association.
He called Watkins at the London Hospital and asked to be seen the same day. Watkins was a member of the British GP's medical committee, but this was the first time the two had spoken.
Ecclestone, who once took his friend Jochen Rindt's helmet back to the pits after a fatal crash, introduced himself and explained the medical safety lapses at the circuit.
Watkins, an adventurous car enthusiast, agreed to the challenge.
Wheels have been a part of Watkins' life since childhood. He was born in Liverpool in 1928 and his father ran Wally his Watkins bicycle shop in Bootle. He also had a family garage, where the boy worked alongside his father “filling gas, tinkering with cars, and doing mechanic work.”
After qualifying at Liverpool University Medical School and working in the United States, Watkins returned to the UK in 1970 to become the first Professor of Neurosurgery at the London Hospital.
Within weeks of his first meeting with Ecclestone, Watkins was attending the Swedish Grand Prix, juggling his new role as an F1 surgeon with his day job.
Watkins noticed that there was no training helicopter available at the Understorp circuit, as it was not considered as dangerous as the race.
He would soon become accustomed to the haphazard nature of safety measures within F1.
At Brands Hatch for the British Grand Prix, I was faced with a small, ill-equipped medical center staffed by two paramedics, drinking beer.
But at least there was a medical center. At the next race in Hockenheim, Germany, the emergency facility was a converted single-decker bus, with staff camping nearby in tents.
It reflected a culture within the sport that accepted death as an occupational hazard.
“When Sid came into this sport, life was cheap,” Hill, who was Williams' teammate when Senna died in 1994, told BBC Sport.
“Drivers were seen as risk-takers and playboys. In reality, fatal accidents were just part of the price of having a good time.”
Mr. Hartstein, who worked for Mr. Watkins full-time since 1997 and succeeded him in 2005, agrees.
“When Sid was asked to come over by Bernie, things were pretty bad and had been like that for a long time,” he says.
Watkins immediately took action, insisting that the Ecclestone circuit should not host a Formula 1 race unless it had a properly equipped medical centre. He asked for permission for him and his anesthetist to follow the first lap of the race in a high-speed car equipped with a radio and “driven by a competent and recognized race driver who knows the circuit well.” I asked for it.
It also stipulated that helicopters be available for all practices, warm-ups and races.
Less than three months after attending his first Grand Prix in his new role, Watkins saw an urgent need to change his mindset and improve safety measures.
After a huge crash on the first lap of the 1978 Italian Grand Prix, police lined up across the track and wouldn't let him pass. On the other side of the cordon, Swedish driver Ronnie Peterson was trapped in his badly damaged Lotus and suffered serious leg injuries. Peterson died of an embolism the next morning after significant delays in rescue and medical treatment.
Watkins was then given the responsibility of overseeing and being actively involved in the rescue arrangements at the circuit.
“It was incredibly difficult because this had never happened before, and it had never existed before,” Hartstein said. “He had to build a whole system that we now take for granted: doctors, ambulances, referral hospitals staffed in a certain way with a certain level of competency.
“There was no culture like that. There was a stupid argument: 'Well, people come to see death, and that's part of the attraction, and drivers understand that and agree with it. 』
“The first and hardest battle was changing mindsets. A rebellious culture made his job difficult.”
