The Ferrari driver was in the midst of a freak accident in the Hungarian Grand Prix where a suspension spring from fellow Brazilian driver Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn GP car flew off and hit him on his head which resulted in him losing control and hitting head onto a tyre barrier. He lost consciousness and needed to be hospitalized where he had to spend 2 days in a medically-induced coma.
Massa has since left the hospital and will be heading home to recover and he hoped to recover as soon as possible so that he could race again. After the incident, many quarters reported that Massa’s career could be over if the condition of his left eye do not improve. This prompted Ferrari to request for former World Champion Michael Schumacher to come out of retirement and temporarily stand in for Massa, which he did.
Massa, who has since regain consciousness and heading home at Sao Paolo said "I know I'm lucky to be alive. I don't remember anything about the accident but I will race again. When I woke up I didn't know why I was in hospital, so I was asking 'why am I here?' I was pulling all the tubes and Eduardo, my brother, tried to stop me – so we had a fight. The accident was so unlucky but I know I'm lucky to be alive. I don't remember anything of what happened. It was my race, so when I awoke from the coma I couldn't believe it when they told me Lewis (Hamilton) had won and Kimi (Raikkonen) was second."
Massa’s stand-in driver, Schumacher is now training for the upcoming Europe GP and did so after visiting the Brazilian. Schumacher said "It's good I finally made it to see Felipe – I feel better now. I'm surprised at his condition as the accident was only a week ago. We chatted for three hours and I feel really relieved now. I have to say I'm feeling muscles I was not even aware existed any more – but you cannot test for a day after such a lot of time without feeling anything. I'm curious to see what will happen in the coming days."
