Customer Reviews
Great read - By: Bodd, 10 May 2008 
Prof Sid Watkins has seen a lot of tradgedyin motor racing but has still kept his scouse sense of humour. The first chapter deals with Imola 1994 when Roland Ratzenberger & Ayrton Senna tragically lost their lives, I am not sure if it is because it is what most people reading the book will be looking for or if it is to get it out of the way early because a lot of the rest of the book is more light hearted & has quite a few anecdotes, there are of course other tragedies but the Prof always has good stories about the men involved & his relationships with them, he also lets you know a little more about the drivers he has rescued & outlines all the safety problems they have had to deal with.
Just Great - By: R. Sore, 06 Jan 2004 I bought this book, thinking that it would be a different view of the sport, & how right I was. It was a great read, although sometimes a bit too technical for a non medical person, & also contained a lot of statistics, but much of it wasin appendix form, so you did not have to read it.
he should have waited till he retired and written THE book. - By: C. Nation, 17 Mar 2002 
I read Prof Sid's 2nd book first. Like that one, I read it at one sitting & then left it on the plane. The good professor is all that another reviewer has described: supremely respected, enormously experienced & responsible for saving the lives of many racing drivers [through scence-of-crash intervention or safety committee input]The trouble is, he's not a writer. His narrative lurches from cigars & malt whiskey with some neuromedic colleague to "intubating" some hapless F1 driver after a monumental crash - all described with the same retiring, self-effacing modesty which is evidently the Professor's principle character trait, for which he is so loved by the F1 circus.
Professor Sid Watkins has been & is still one of the leading personalities of F1 racing for 20 years or more. One day, with luck, a book which any F1 fan will keep & re-read again & again will be written by Prof Sid, with the help of a professional writer similarly steepedin motor racing. Until then, read his two books by all means but be prepared to feel very disappointed
Another world Champion - By: biscuit_barrel@hotmail.com, 27 Sep 2001 If you like your F1 & have a favourite driver then you'll probably be able to carry on supporting the driver for longer because of the work of this man. Not only has he been able to make F1 safer but he can write too. An interesting story well recounted. I can recommend it wholeheartedly.
He's earned respect, never demanded it. - By: Titicaca7@cs.com Thomas Marshall, 07 Sep 2001 Viewing Grand Prix motor racing through the wonderfully perceptive eyes of Professor Watkins means that anyone interestedin the sport should read this excellent account. Obviously respected, often revered by those with whom he works, he gives vivid & sometimes moving recollections spanning the many years of his involvement. Humour & pathos make regular appearances; his dry wit, an essential tool of his trade perhaps, serves to punctuate what is essentially a serious book. His incisive précis of drivers from the last three decades makes for compulsive reading, the character analyses are intriguing & revealing. Undoubtedly a pivotal characterin the world of Formula One, the professor has been instrumentalin saving many lives. However, he's also witnessed intimately the consequences of appalling accidentsin which lives were lost. He is perhaps uniquely qualified to commentate on the sport, his dedication & professionalism making him a heroin this modern amphitheatre which now embraces the globe. Superbly readable. Once is not enough.
