Before we consider the approach to the driver still in his (or her – my use of the masculine pronoun is purely for simplicity!) car, I wanted to briefly consider what we do when the driver is out of the car on arrival on-scene.

First, the relatively rare situation of a driver out of his car, but not feeling well. The best and most interesting example of our approach in this case would be Fernando Alonso’s accident in Brazil in 2003:

When we arrived on-scene, Fernando was half sitting, leaning back against the base of the grandstand wall. He was pale, sweaty, and clearly not in top form. I’d seen the accident on the screens in the Medical Car, and knew it had been huge. I told Fernando that we were going to place him on a gurney, load him onto the ambulance that had already arrived on-scene.

“I’m not going on a stretcher, I’m going to stand up” he said stubbornly. I was annoyed, but not surprised. This is how these guys are. I thought about it for a moment.

Happily, Dino, the Chief Medical Officer in Brazil has teamed us with Dr. Fernando Novo for years. Fernando is one of the pillars of the PHTLS (Prehospital Trauma Life Support) course in Brazil, and this brilliant skill set, as you’ll see in a moment, came in incredibly handy here. I told Dr. Fernando that we were going to do a “two man takedown”.

I told Fernando (the F1 version), still sitting against the wall, what was going to happen. I said we’d let him stand up and wave to the crowd. I insisted that if he felt unwell standing, he was to just whisper that to me, and we’d get him lying down pronto. I told him that before we let him stand up, we were going to place a rigid cervical collar before he stood up. And that as soon as he’d waved to the crowd and acknowledged their applause, he was to remain quite still as we prepared him to be put on the gurney and loaded onto the ambulance. I told him this was non-negociable.

Fernando (Novo, my colleague) stood on Fernando (Alonso)’s right, and I at his left. Standing up was uneventful. Good. Step one successful. Now picture this: Fernando Novo and I apply a long spine board (held vertically of course) to Alonso’s back (while he’s standing), holding it there with my right, and Fernando Novo’s left hands, placed under Alonso’s armpits on each side and grabbing the handles on each side of the board. We each place our free hands (my left hand and Dr. Fernando’s right) on either side of Alonso’s head, to provide additional stabilisation beyond that of the collar. My left (and Novo’s right) feet are blocking the bottom of the board. Ready? On the count of three, we tip Fernando back, the ambulance crew grab the bottom of the board, and waving to the crowd, Alonso is placed on a gurney and loaded onto an ambulance while the crowd cheers.

This is an excellent example of the complementarity between the local team (here represented by Fernando Novo in the medical car) and the FIA. It also eloquently speaks to how important it is to have everyone reading from the same page in terms of medical knowledge and technique. Here, Fernando Novo and I shared knowledge of the PHTLS course, with obviously highly satisfactory results. Now we need to hope the FIA actually does move ahead with worldwide implementation of a motorsport medicine course. Yeah, the one they’ve been talking about for ten years now.

When the driver is out of the car and not complaining, we’ll almost always take him in the medical car. I would use this time to check for any subtle complaints that only start to appear when the adrenaline of the accident starts to fade away. It’s also a great opportunity to look for subtle symptoms of concussion. So I’ll ask about who he was following when the accident happened, and other questions looking for anything . . . not right. If there are symptoms, complaints, or if the medical warning light of the car was triggered, we drop the driver off at the medical centre.