Felipe Massa, the Brazilian Ferrari driver who suffered serious head injuries during the qualifying session at the Hungarian grand prix in July, will not return to racing until next season.
That was the conclusion reached by Ferrari today following further detailed tests at a hospital in Florida, although the prognosis was good and it seems virtually certain that he will be able to resume his racing career in 2010. "Obviously the result of the examination has been warmly greeted in Maranello in the sense that the team can count on Felipe 100% from the start of next season," said a statement from the team.
Massa attended the neuroscience intensive care unit at the Jackson Memorial hospital in Miami where he was examined by Dr Steve Olvey, a highly respected specialist renowned for dealing with all forms of motor racing injuries. But Ferrari added that, with Massa due to have plastic surgery on his skull within the next few days, it would be unrealistic to expect him to race again in 2009.
"I'm happy with the outcome of the tests," Massa was reported as saying by autosport.com. "After the small operation I will undergo in the next few days, I'll finally be able to start some gym exercises to get back into shape a bit and after that I'll be able to start some testing on karts.
"On track with a Formula One car? Let's go one step at a time. Now I'm focused only on starting over with physical activity, which is already a nice step forward."
Meanwhile speculation continues to intensify that Giancarlo Fisichella, who finished second to Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari in Sunday's Belgian grand prix, will be released to drive for Ferrari for the five remaining races this year with the Force India test driver Vitantonio Liuzzi promoted to race driver in his place. But this was denied yesterday by VJ Mallya, the millionaire owner of the Force India team. "We look forward to Fisichella scorching the track at Monza," he said.