Red Cross Blogs

Formula 1 first aid

By Chris Jefferies
May 20, 2010 at 4:47 pm

Last weekend, Formula 1 (F1) fans across the world turned their attention to the Principality of Monaco. Despite being the second smallest country in the world, Monaco hosts one of the most prestigious events in the F1 calendar – the Monaco Grand Prix. Set in the winding city streets of Monte Carlo, the ‘Circuit de Monaco’ is seen as one of the most demanding tracks in F1 racing.

The Monaco Red Cross play a vital part in the organisation and running of this prestigious event. They are responsible for providing first aid cover to the grandstands (which can hold up to 10,000 people) and also to the marshals and staff track-side. Due to the size of the event, the Monaco Red Cross invite teams of Red Cross first aiders from throughout Europe to help out at the event. Included in this invitation is the British Red Cross.

So last week, myself and five other Event First Aid volunteers packed our first aid kits and headed out to Monaco. This was certainly once in a lifetime opportunity, the British Red Cross cover a variety of large and interesting events here in the UK, however none can quite match the prestige and glamour of the Monaco Grand Prix!

We arrived in time for the briefing of Red Cross teams on Wednesday. The number of people involved and the organisation was staggering. Hundreds of first aiders, doctors, nurses, marshals, fire fighters and ambulance crews would be deployed during the event. Our team had two areas to cover, the exit of the tunnel and one of the grandstands. We would be working along side Red Cross colleagues from Italy, Switzerland, Andorra, Germany, France and of course Monaco.

The days were long, up at 6am (a challenge for some!) and finishing in the evening. Although race-day was Sunday, we were ‘on duty’ from Thursday to cover qualifying and practice sessions. Being at the exit of the tunnel was an extraordinarily experience with Formula 1 cars passing within metres of you. Ear defenders became my best friend!

Luckily the whole event proved to be mostly uneventful for us – plasters and Paracetamol were the order of the day. It was a great experience to be part of a team of professional volunteers working to keep the public safe. Well done to the whole team.

Moral of the story? Become an Event First Aid volunteer. You never know where you might end up.

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Tags: event first aid, formula 1, grand prix, monaco

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 4:47 pm and is filed under First aid, International. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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