Bernd Maylander explains how 1994 San Marino GP tragedy transformed F1’s safety car system

Formula 1's long-serving safety car driver Bernd Maylander has explained how the tragic events of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix served as a catalyst in dramatically improving the championship's safety car system.

Maylander reflected on the era before widespread standardisation during an appearance on the F1 Beyond The Grid podcast. 

"I think the medical car was always a part of it, or let's say ambulances," he said. "I don't know before the '90s what happened exactly, but Sid [Professor Sid Watkins] was already there.

"I think since 1994 we all know who Sid Watkins is in racing, of what he has done. And then these things getting more and more important from '93 onwards, when we had big accidents.

"Sid's job and also the safety and medical stuff that they have implemented in Formula 1, that was really, really important and we learned a lot. That's why we created a safety department and a medical department to have more power to develop quicker, to develop better together with everyone who's involved in Formula 1.

"It's not only the FIA. So we get support from the teams. We're working together and I think that's a very important big step that we're working together. I think it was quite different 30 or 40 years ago."

Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger and Brazilian three-time champion Ayrton Senna both lost their lives during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix weekend. The deaths were the first in the championship since 1982. 

Bernd Maylander, FIA Safety Car Driver

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Asked if the events of the 1994 San Marino race weekend accelerated the need for a safety car, Maylander added: "Absolutely. At that time, the safety car was implemented in the rules, but it was different cars, different drivers from racetrack to racetrack and then from it must be '96 onwards, it was a permanent driver.

"At that time it was Oliver Gavin. Oliver Gavin is a former race driver, a very, very good GT driver, and he did this from '96 to '99. I took his job over because he left. He went to America for the American Le Mans series. So that was my lucky moment.

"That was the first step, that you have a permanent driver to be absolutely professional in his job, and then also to have a permanent brand and the same safety and medical cars at each track, because then you had standard equipment."