BUDAPEST // Felipe Massa could walk out of hospital within 10 days and his eye appears to have suffered no damage in Saturday's accident, his doctors said today. "My expectation is that he would walk out of the hospital on his own," Peter Bazso, the medical director of the AEK hospital in Budapest, said. "If his recovery continues at this pace, I wouldn't rule out that he could leave within 10 days."
The Ferrari driver's condition remained serious, however, Bazso said. "I would like to point out that although he's recovering, this is not the end of the story; he is still in a life-threatening condition. Of course, the danger is decreasing by the day." Dino Altmann, Massa's personal physician said the Brazilian was alert and his eyesight, a chief concern, was fine. "Today Felipe is improving continuously, he is more alert than he was before," Altmann said.
"He's answering in three different languages in proper answers and he knows exactly what's right and left, his left eye has no problem, his eyesight is OK," Massa, last year's Formula One world championship runner-up, fractured his skull in an accident during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix when he was hit just above his left eye by a bouncing spring, weighing almost a kilo, that broke free from compatriot Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP car.
Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali, who visited the hospital on Tuesday, declined to discuss who could replace Massa and said the team awaited his return. "We said that we were waiting for him as soon as he will be back and that's his car," Domenicali said. Doctors brought Massa, 28, out of an artificial coma on Monday and took him off a respirator. Bazso said it was too early to predict whether Massa had suffered any lasting damage.
* Reuters