Fortunately, his gain is also the FIA's gain. As one of the world's leading orthopaedic surgeons, the FIA Institute has been able to count on Saillant's vast knowledge of sports medicine to fulfill its mission to improve safety in motor racing. Saillant has spent much of his career combining his skills as an orthopaedic surgeon with his passion for sport. Specialising in knee and spinal surgery, he has operated on some of the world's top athletes such as German Formula One star Michael Schumacher and Brazilian footballer Ronaldo, who famously commemorated his two winning goals in the 2002 World Cup final to the French doctor.

Saillant says that working with top sportsmen has been a hugely satisfying part of his job. He says: “It is very interesting to work with top athletes. The kind of surgery you do is not very different to that with a non-athlete. But what is interesting is the medical programme running alongside the sport programme. It is very satisfying to help maximize an athlete's sporting career.”

Saillant was interested in sport and medicine from an early age. Born in March 1945 in Montluçon, Allier, he was destined to follow in his father's (and grandfather's) footsteps to become a doctor.

But his first love was sport. He used to run in cross-country events, play football and would go to watch motor races whenever he could. It was only in his late teens that he realised he would never become a professional athlete and so applied to study medicine at the University of Paris.

He would go on to combine his talents with his love of sport many times during his career. He has been an advisor to both the French minister for sport and the French Motorsport Federation, and was the official physician of the French Olympic team in the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Olympics.

Saillant has also operated on many racing drivers over the last 20 years, from Swiss racer Clay Regazzoni in the 1980s to seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher, after he badly broke his leg in an accident at the British Grand Prix in 1999.

Saillant says: “For Michael it was very interesting to see his recovery. Of course he is a fantastic driver, but people don't realize he is a fantastic sportsman. Just one month after the surgery he was able to drive again and to have exactly the same sensitivity. For his first race back in Malaysia it was very hot, everybody was losing kilos of water but he just looked fresh. He's not just a fantastic driver but a fantastic sportsman too.”

Saillant came to the attention of the FIA through his work at the Institut de Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière (ICM), the Paris Institute for Brain and Spinal Chord Disorders The organisation was founded through support from the Formula One fraternity, including Ferrari's Jean Todt and FIA President Max Mosley.

The FIA Foundation, which launched the FIA Institute with a grant in 2004, also helped fund one of the projects at ICM that Saillant was working on.

At the beginning of 2005 Saillant was asked to become one of the five Fellows of the FIA Institute and in 2006 was invited to become its Deputy President. Since then, he has been working hard to improve motor sport safety and was integral in the creation of the FIA Institute's Medical Training Working Group, which seeks to improve medical education and training for medics and marshals.

Saillant says: “My goal is to try to obtain the same level of safety for rallying and other types of motor racing as for Formula One. I also want the same safety standards in events governed by National Sporting Associations (ASNs) as those governed by the FIA. The FIA can't control national events run by ASNs but it can demonstrate best practice and encourage ASNs to follow suit.”

The Medical Training Working Group has since evolved into the Medical Faculty, with an aim to bring together motor sport medical staff and spread their expertise across every category of racing.

Saillant says: “The Medical Faculty is an important project for the Institute. Very often the physicians we have in sports medicine are voluntary and hard to find. The Faculty is a good way to recruit the specialists in trauma, resuscitation, anaesthesia and so on for every race. For the famous races like Formula One it is not difficult. But for the smaller races or rallies in, say, Spain or France it is harder.”

The Faculty will also help to upgrade the knowledge of physicians with the latest updates from across the world. Plans for a bespoke website and a regular newsletter for members are already in full swing.

The group officially launched in April 2008 at the Bahrain Grand Prix but it has already gathered a database of around 300 medics, a number Saillant hopes to double by the end of the year.

To do this the FIA Institute will hold meetings in each country where a Formula One race or World Rally event takes place to encourage medics to join the group.

Saillant says: “It is a very ambitious goal but it is very important because the life of a club rally driver in France is the same as a driver in Formula One. We must offer them the same chances to be alive.”