ALUMNI STORIES
Meet Formula 1’ s top medical doctor Dr Ian Roberts( Class of 1998) who has a degree from Keele University and worked clinically in the NHS in Staffordshire.
14 | FOREVER Keele
ALUMNI STORIES
From Keele to Formula 1
Meet Formula 1’ s top medical doctor Dr Ian Roberts( Class of 1998) who has a degree from Keele University and worked clinically in the NHS in Staffordshire.
While all the focus and attention during a Grand Prix is fixed on drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen and their ability to make a clean start, Dr Ian Roberts is often considered one of the most important people at the track.
As the FIA’ s Medical Delegate and Chief Medical Officer for Formula 1, Ian is regularly on standby during races, ready to jump in the Medical Car with a professional driver and rush to the scene of an accident at a moment’ s notice.
When Romain Grosjean crashed heavily into barriers on the first lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2020, his car ripped in half and burst into flames. Considered one of the most miraculous escapes in Formula 1’ s history, Ian was among those first on the scene and received the FIA President Award and international praise for his bravery and reaction after helping to pull Grosjean to safety. Ian has helped ensure the safety of F1 drivers at more than 250 Grand Prix races and received the HRH Prince Michael of Kent Award of Merit in 2022 for his exceptional work in motorsport safety and medicine.
Before his career in motorsport medicine, which began with his appointment as the Chief Medical Officer for Silverstone with responsibility for the British Grand Prix, Ian worked as a rotational Registrar in the NHS between 1993 and 1998.
This included regularly working at Stoke-on- Trent’ s North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary and City General Hospital sites, and he also completed a Master of Medical Sciences degree with Keele University between 1996 and 1998.
Ian said:“ The hospital was split into two sites back then, the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary and the City General Hospital. When on call in the hospital, in rotation with other specialist registrar colleagues, I was the senior person underneath the Consultant at the time, and it was extremely busy dealing with neurosurgical and cardiothoracic patients, supervising junior doctors in maternity and the main emergency theatre block and many other things. I seemed to spend all night going back and forth between the two sites and sleep was a real luxury back then.
“ It was a great time in my career working in Stokeon-Trent, which was just prior to when I became a Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care. I actually look back on those days with real fondness because although it was a very busy time, I learned so much. The anaesthetists and intensive care staff were fantastic, and the hospital had a huge catchment area, so you would see all kinds of patients, which was a real learning curve.