Massa future in the balance

Doctors treating Ferrari driver Felipe Massa have insisted it is too soon to know whether he will ever race again after his horror accident during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday.

There was good news on the 28-year-old Brazilian last night as he has awoken from an induced coma and made significant progress in recovering from fractures to his skull.

However, there are still concerns over his condition, in particular a possible eye injury that could have caused loss of vision.

“As we speak he is sleepy, but he gives adequate answers to the questions we ask him, and he can move his arms and legs spontaneously,” Colonel doctor Lajos Zsiros of the AEK military hospital in Budapest said.

“Right now he has no fever, and we have removed the drain tube from his wound. Further improvement of his condition can be expected.”

But asked to comment on Massa’s eye injury, Zsiros said: “It is too early to answer this question.

“We can give no positive neither negative answer to this, because at this stage the vision cannot be examined.”

Massa was hurt when a spring that had fallen from the back of Rubens Barrichello’s car struck him on the helmet at 162mph, dazing him and causing him to lose control of his car and crash into the tyre barriers at high speed.

He underwent life-saving emergency surgery and doctors admitted it will be some time before they know if he has suffered long-term damage.

“There is no such thing as ’this condition’, because every case is different,” Zsiros said.

“There is no interval which we can define, but I would say it should be from one week to 10 days.”

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo visited Massa in hospital yesterday and insisted no decisions would be taken over the Italian marque’s direction for the rest of the season until the driver’s situation was clarified.

“Our first priority is Felipe’s recovery, Felipe’s progress and so on,” he said.

“Felipe’s been an important member of the Ferrari family for many years, since he arrived as a kid, so we all hope he can come back soon.”

Di Montezemolo added: “(Team principal Stefano) Domenicali has to think and make good proposals for the future.

“We don’t want to wait too long for Felipe, but our first priority now is to find out about Felipe, and only at that moment will we take a decision.”