German Car Zone

Doctors say it is too early to judge whether Felipe Massa will race again after it was revealed on Monday that the Brazilian suffered damage to his left eye in his Hungarian Grand Prix crash.
Massa is still in hospital recovering from a skull fracture and concussion after he was hit in the face by a spring from Rubens Barrichello's car.
Local media quoted the hospital's professor Robert Veres from Budapest as saying that the eye injury could be enough to end Massa's F1 career.
"He has suffered some damage to the eye," said Veres. "We don't know whether he'll be able to race again."


The AEK hospital in Budapest is scheduled to hold a press conference this evening to update the media on Massa's injuries.
The spring struck Massa just above his left eye, smashing his helmet and fracturing his skull.
Doctors also confirmed on Monday that the operation that was conducted on Saturday afternoon saved Massa's life.
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo visited Massa in hospital on Monday.

Even if he turns out to be physically fine and returns to the track, will he be the same?? Or will he change just like Mika did after his sobering crash in Australia?

Wow, this is not looking good! His life was endangered, and now his eye could be damaged.

Hope he'll soon fully recover.

In a blink of an eye, Massa's F1 career may be at risk. I've watched those replays over and over again,and there was no way he could have avoided that flying spring from Barichello's car.

Fractured skull, concussion, and likely injury to his left eye. The fact that he required emergency neurosurgery to save his life and needs to be induced into a coma to help with his recovery are all not good signs. Acute brain injuries are unpredictable.....he may make a full recovery, but only time will tell......I doubt Massa will be racing again this season. Hopefully, this is not the end of his F1 career.

Full recovery possible for Massa

By Peter Farkas
Monday, July 27th 2009, 18:00 GMT

Felipe Massa's condition is continuing to improve as doctors at the AEK Hospital in Hungary, where the Brazilian driver is being treated, denied earlier reports of eye damage and instead suggested he could make a full recovery.

Colonel Dr. Lajos Zsiros, the chief surgeon of the Hungarian Defence Forces, told a news conference on Monday that the 28-year-old had been woken from sedation on Monday afternoon, and was unlikely to be sedated again.

"In the last 24 hours some major changes have gone through in the condition of Felipe Massa," said Zsiros. "His condition continues to be stable.

"During the CT-scan we performed we could ascertain that there was an improvement in his condition. We stopped sedation and after that Felipe Massa became capable of making contact."

"So in the afternoon we stopped the artificial ventilation of Felipe. 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."

"Right now he has no fever, and we have removed the drain tube from his wound. Further improvement of his condition can be expected. During the night we do not plan to do any more interventions on him."

Zsiros denied the earlier reports that Massa had injured his left eye, which led to speculation about his future participation in Formula 1.

Peter Bazso, the hospital's medical director, explained that it was in fact too early to tell if there was any damage because Massa was still unable to open the eye: "We can give no positive neither negative answer to this, because at this stage the vision cannot be examined."

Bazso made it clear however that a full recovery was still entirely possible for the Brazilian.

"There is no such thing as 'this condition', because every case is different," he pointed out. "Of course it isn't impossible."

When asked when they will be able to determine if Massa has suffered any kind of lasting injury, Zsiros said: "There is no interval which we can define, but I would say it should be from one week to ten days."

He added that Massa would remain in intensive care as long as his condition made that necessary.

Dino Altmann, the Chief Medical Officer of the Brazilian Grand Prix, who also attended the news conference, confirmed Massa was now able to speak.

"He spoke, he wanted to know what happened to him. And he had some questions," Altmann revealed. "I would like to say that the family is very happy with the treatment Felipe is receiving here, and there's no question about transfer at the moment."

Altmann said they haven't asked Massa yet if he was able to remember the accident. He also explained that the operation on Saturday, which doctors described as "life-saving", was performed because of the skull damage, not because of brain swelling.

A spokesman for the AEK hospital confirmed Massa's family were already in Budapest, and a room was made available for them so they could stay with him at all times.

Thanks for making this thread Brian. I was thinking about making it, but I have been away from my comp most of the day.

Anyways, I hope a speedy recovery for Massa and my heart goes out to the family.


Comece bem cedo Massa!

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo says he is "confident and optimistic" about Felipe Massa's recovery following his accident at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Di Montezemolo flew to Budapest today to visit Massa at the AEK hospital, where he met with the doctors taking care of the Brazilian, as well as his family.


The Ferrari boss was thankful to the hospital staff.
"I'm confident and optimistic about Felipe's capacity to recover," di Montezemolo said, "also because he has excellent medical care and I want to thank the staff at the AEK hospital for the work they're doing.
"Thank you also to Professor Sailant and Piete, who came here immediately. Their support will be fundamental also from a psychological point of view for Felipe's family and for the whole team."
He added: "It was a serious and incredible accident, but thank God this is a different situation compared to 1976 when I went to see Niki Lauda after the accident at the Nurburgring. We have to wait, but the signs are encouraging."


Di Montezemolo said Ferrari will make a decision on who replaces Massa in due time, but stressed that the most important thing was that the Brazilian recovered well.
The Italian will meet with team boss Stefano Domenicali to hear about possible replacements for Massa for the European Grand Prix at Valencia.
"Our priority is the recovery of Felipe as a man," he said. "He has been with us for a long time and he is part of the family and not just of the team... We're all waiting for him at Ferrari and I'm convinced that we'll see him again in one of our single-seaters and that he will be again on top.


"Yesterday's race would have been perfect for Felipe. I'm heading back to Maranello with Domenicali, who will make suggestions how to substitute the Brazilian driver until he returns, which I hope will be very soon. We'll make a decision when the time is right, considering that there's a break of a month now."

Felipe Massa's personal doctor believes the Ferrari driver will be able to check out of hospital in central Budapest within one week.

Dr Dino Altman's prediction to the Brazilian media was backed up by the Hungarian intensive care doctors, who agree that if the current rate of progress continues, Massa should be ready to return to Sao Paulo in between a week and ten days.

"(Massa is) sleepy but he gives adequate and spontaneous answers to questions we ask him," said AEK's chief surgeon Lajos Zsiros.

Massa's father Luis Antonio revealed that his son may be out of intensive care within two days.

"He is doing well and soon he will be giving joy to all in his little red car on the track," Massa's pregnant wife Rafaela told Brazil's Globo.
Zsireos added that the drain for Massa's skull wound was removed, on the same day the period of induced coma was ended and artificial breathing stopped.

"(Massa is) very well and everyone is very happy with his condition," Altman continued. "He wants to know what happened to him and he answered some questions."

No problem mate. Felipe is one of the nicest guys around the paddock, and it's no surprise rivals like Webber, Hamilton and Kovalainen are concerned about his injury.

Anyways, looks like Massa's injury is not as bad as first imagined. I sincerely hopes he recovers from his injury, never mind about this season. The most important thing is, he's a family man now, a baby is on the way, and i think the most important thing for him is to recover 100% now. Career maybe over, but whats that compared to family?

I hope they consider tougher visor standards to start with. It is not going to help against something as heavy as a wheel, but at least against something smaller like in Massa's case. Bullet proof glass visors may be? or may be they are too heavy for the neck to support through a fast corner, but may be something lighter but still tough. Also I don't why F1 doesn't consider airbags, you can clearly see Massa banging his head against the steering when the car crashed into the tire barrier - a small air bag would have gone a long way in stopping a an already injured head from taking another hit.