In 2020, Károly Méhes spoke to Prof. Dr. György Nemes, the medical chief on the inaugural Hungarian Grand Prix in 1986.
Dr. Nemes, aged 86 on the time of our interview in 2020*, was a well known traumatology specialist and orthopaedic surgeon. He was at all times taken with racing, however extra importantly was an professional in treating accidents attributable to automotive accidents. The best individual to take the function of trackside medical chief for the inaugural Hungarian Grand Prix in 1986, in different phrases. The contract for the race was signed by Bernie Ecclestone and Mr. Tibor Balogh from the Hungarian Autoclub in September 1985, giving Dr. Nemes lower than a yr to arrange for the primary Formulation 1 race behind the Iron Curtain. (*Dr. Nemes died in 2025, aged 91.)
How had been the preparations forward of the inaugural 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix?
It was an excessive rush. A number of teams labored on totally different elements of the medical programme with the intention of ending on the similar time, however this was sophisticated by the observe being constructed round us. I supervised the planning and building of the medical centre and arranged the medical help for the race.
There have been a loads of unexpected points. The one constructing on the circuit to have an air conditioner was the medical centre, nevertheless it wasn’t simple to get one in Hungary on the time. There was just one manufacturing unit in Hungary producing them on the time, the Lehel fridge manufacturing unit in Jászberény. When it arrived, there was no one capable of set up it! I needed to discover some specialists from our hospital to do the work.
It was a superb resolution to put in the air conditioner within the medical centre, because the temperatures for the primary race had been excessive. Frank Williams had simply suffered his terrible street accident, so he would come to the medical centre for his bodily remedy – it was much more nice doing this in an air-conditioned room than the new motorhomes.
You had been in command of rescue operations, what did this imply in observe?
We had been requested to not use the state-owned ambulances from Budapest, as a result of it was feared there might be issues within the metropolis if we took 15 ambulances off the roads for the weekend. I needed to discover different methods. I borrowed an outdated ambulance on the Csepel Metalworks, a brand new Mercedes from the Ministry of Inside (usually utilized by the comrades) and likewise obtained some extra ones from smaller cities within the area. We would have liked 16 ambulances in complete, seven for the totally different sectors of the circuit and the remainder for the spectator areas. I borrowed all of them! I needed to discover out the proper spots at totally different elements of the circuit to park the ambulances. After we first confirmed our old style Nysa ambulances from Poland to the FISA delegates, there have been a number of smiles. Professor Sid Watkins stated we might make a pleasant museum show from them!
We had medical tents with volunteer docs and nurses from each nook of the nation, as a result of we didn’t need to take all of them from Budapest. I additionally purchased a number of dozen daggers, as a result of I used to be fearful that we might not have the ability to extract the drivers from their security harness after an accident with out reducing the belts. I went to the most important Budapest grocery store Skála, and I bought each dagger they’d. A person standing behind me within the line grew to become upset and began shouting that I used to be planning to commit mass homicide with all these weapons!
Every other points?
We had bother discovering a helicopter touchdown space for the Budapest Traumatology Institute, which didn’t possess one on the time. This was in case we wanted to move a severely injured driver from the observe to the hospital. The close by Fiumei cemetery was instructed, however we dropped that concept; what would the injured driver assume if he was transported on to the cemetery?
Did you expertise any issues on race weekend?
Not with any accidents on the observe. However we had issues with the wasps dwelling within the surrounding vineyards, who saved on stinging the spectators! Many spectators additionally wanted remedy for sunstroke. There was additionally a difficulty with an outdated Wartburg automotive from East Germany that had a defective handbrake. It careened down a hill and crashed right into a household consuming their dinner. Fortunately, there have been solely minor accidents.
