Felipe Massa remains in an induced coma today at the AEK military hospital in Budapest. Doctors have sedated the Brazilian and are keeping him under observation in intensive care to minimise the risk of any complications that could arise from brain swelling. Massa’s condition is stable and initial CT scans indicate that he has not experienced any serious permanent damage. At this early stage it looks like Felipe will make a full recovery but details will only be available later this week.

The Ferrari driver’s sickening shunt during qualifying at the Hungaroring highlighted the inherent dangers that exist in motorsport, and Formula One safety is once again under heavy review.

After setting the 8th fastest time at the very end of Q2, Felipe Massa began making his way back to the pits. Rubens Barrichello had set a time just before the Ferrari driver and was four seconds ahead of Massa up the road. When Rubens came out of turn three the right rear suspension failed on his Brawn and a number of small carbon fibre pieces broke away from the car. As Barrichello continued towards turn four a steel damper spring about 10cm long also came loose from the Brawn and bounced along the circuit. Massa approached the spring four seconds later at which point it bounced up and struck him flush on the helmet.

The impact ripped apart left hand side of Massa’s visor and severely damaged the structure of his helmet. The spring only weighed 800grams but exerted a force on Massa of over 100 kilos as he made contact with the debris at 250kph. The jolt to Felipe’s head knocked him out cold.

Unconscious, Massa continued down the straight and failed to negotiate the small right hand kink before turn four. The Ferrari cut back across the track, over a tarmac run off, and ploughed straight into a tyre wall. This second impact destroyed the front of the car but the survival cell and carbon fibre tub remained intact.

When he was knocked out Massa applied both the brake and throttle. This explains why the front wheels were locked whilst his car powered towards the barriers.

Felipe suffered a fractured skull, a brain concussion, as well as a serious cut just above his left eye. It is unclear if the cut came from the spring when it first hit Felipe, or if something flew into his open visor during the second impact. Felipe may be lucky to be alive but he is also lucky not to have lost an eye.

Gary Hartstein, the full time F1 doctor, extricated Massa from the car and took him to the medical centre where his condition was stabilised. Although Felipe was conscious at this stage he was highly agitated and had to be sedated by medical officials. He was then taken to the nearby military hospital and underwent successful emergency surgery on his injuries. Massa was also placed into an induced coma to lower the amount of carbon dioxide in his blood, which therefore reduces the risk of potentially fatal brain swelling.

Initial reports from the hospital suggested Felipe’s condition was life threatening. Whilst this was technically true, Massa’s condition was only life threatening in the same way that skydiving is life threatening. It only becomes fatal if something goes wrong.

Felipe has been in and out of his coma a few times since the accident and doctors are pleased with the progress he is making. He will remain in intensive care under heavy sedation until the threat of brain swelling has passed which is a process that usually takes a number of days.

It is unlikely that Massa will race again this year and he will definitely be out of F1 for the next few months.

The severity and the timing of Felipe’s crash will have a significant impact on the sport.

The accident comes less than a week after a near identical sequence of events claimed the life of Henry Surtees. Last Sunday at Brands Hatch, Surtees was struck on the head by a flying wheel from another car and his injuries were instantly fatal. Massa’s accident would always have been serious, but the fact that a fellow driver recently died from the same thing underlined just how serious it really was. Surtees’ crash had a big effect in F1 circles as his was the first death in international open wheeler racing for some years. Massa’s similar accident just six days later played on a raw nerve and brought F1 safety into the spotlight more than it would have done otherwise.

A number of drivers, including Lewis Hamilton and Rubens Barrichello, have called for changes to be made in the name of safety. Rubens quite poignantly said “I honestly don’t believe in coincidence in life. Things happen for a reason and I think this is the second message. Imola was a message. The cars were improved. Unfortunately we lost a boy, which is tremendously sad. It is not a coincidence that something happened right now. In the GPDA we talked quite a lot about it yesterday and something needs to be done.”

Shortly after the accident occurred Bernie Ecclestone got in touch with ex F1 doctor, Professor Sid Watkins. The Prof, as he is affectionately known, managed all of the medical aspects of Grand Prix racing for 26 years. His tireless efforts over that time transformed F1 from an immensely dangerous sport to one where serious injuries are rare. There is certainly nothing wrong with any of the current medical staff in Formula One, but the experience and knowledge of Sid Watkins makes him the best person in the world to be looking into an issue like this.

At first glance it hard to see what type of safety improvements authorities could make to prevent this type of accident from happening again. A driver’s head will always be vulnerable inside a Formula One car.

Once suggestion is to introduce something like a windscreen in front of the driver for protection. Quite how this would be designed is unclear, but it would probably have to be something like a bullet proof sheet of perspex.

However, this causes just as many problems as it solves. Having anything attached to the car in front of the driver’s head is dangerous. I am already surprised the FIA allows teams to have so many little aerials and antennas on the nosecone because they get snapped off when a car goes into a tyre wall and become little missiles. Inserting something even larger in front of the driver is perhaps not a sensible option, especially something like plexiglass that can turn into shards on heavy impact.

Even if the perspex itself was indestructible, it would still represent a serious risk to driver safety. One of the most dangerous things that motorists do on the road do every day is drive with their window halfway down. In the event of a side-on collision the sheet of glass in the window acts like a giant blade which is the last thing you want flying through the air at head height. It might not be wise to place one of those right in front of an F1 driver.

There is also the practical problem of visibility. Drivers have enough trouble looking through their own visors, especially in the rain or low sun, without having a windscreen to look through as well. Placing something in front of them that will get dirty and add to glare is not a perfect solution.

The more radical solution of a closed cockpit is even more complicated. A simple canopy hatch like a fighter jet is one solution, but along with the visibility issues raised by the windscreen idea it also poses a number of more serious safety concerns.

A closed cockpit does not give the drivers anywhere to go in the event of a major accident. There are situations when drivers need to evacuate the car as soon as possible and a closed canopy would make that extremely difficult, especially if the car is upside down.

Along with making it harder for drivers to get out, a closed canopy also makes it harder for medical staff to get in. If a driver is not breathing the doctors will remove his helmet to quickly reopen the airways. They cannot do that if the driver is trapped beneath a canopy. Nor can they administer any other potentially lifesaving procedures.

The safety implications of a closed cockpit make it vital that any suggestion of the sort is thoroughly investigated. It isn’t an obvious solution, especially when you consider that one could possibly collapse inwards during an accident. A roof, or something like that, could actually cause more problems than it solves.

I image it would also feel like driving inside a fishbowl which can’t be a pleasant experience.

That doesn’t even take into account the huge historical significance of racing with open cockpits. F1 is a form of open wheel racing and always has been. A closed canopy goes against 60 years of history, and whilst safety is always the number one priority there will be some purists who argue that it would no longer be Formula One.

If F1 was going to look at introducing closed cockpits, the sport would be better off changing the cars in a huge way so they arrived at something a little bit like a Le Mans car. At least then a driver would have more room inside the cockpit and some of the problems created by a jet fighter style canopy would be removed.

Cockpit safety will understandably be the focus of any investigation into Felipe Massa’s accident, but there are other aspects of the sport’s safety that could be investigated also.

One of those facets might be the helmets used in Formula One.

The helmets used by current Grand Prix drivers are amazing pieces of equipment and are nothing like those you or I would use whilst riding a motorbike. They are very light to minimise the risk of a neck injury in an accident but they’re still near unbreakable. They’re literally bullet proof and you could run over one in a tank without crushing it.

Despite the incredible standards of safety and technology in a modern F1 helmet, both Surtees and Massa’s accidents were defined by serious head injuries.

Massa’s helmet bore significant damage, particularly on the left hand side. The visor was ripped apart and there was a large hole in the outer shell. Like the cars themselves, F1 helmets are designed to absorb the impact of a crash so perhaps much of the damage to Felipe’s helmet was to be expected, and might even have been beneficial.

However, the size and shape of helmets in Formula One has gone unchanged for many years so perhaps there is an alternative design that could potentially better deflect or protect against flying debris. A lot of work has gone into helmet safety in recent years and it probably saved Felipe Massa’s life, but perhaps there is more work that can be done in the years ahead that can save someone else’s life as well.

Less dramatic changes to the cars might also be possible.

The accidents that befell Surtees and Massa were the result of debris from other vehicles. F1 cars have been improved over the last decade in an effort to lessen what could fall off them. Wheels are now tethered to the chassis by strong kevlar cables and the carbon fibre bodywork is combined with a ceramic resin that prevents it from shattering on impact. Although things will always fall off Grand Prix cars, especially in an accident, it might be a more practical area of investigation than closed cockpits.

The safety movement has a lot of momentum in Formula One right now. Renault has already been suspended from the next Grand Prix over a safety breach that has never been seen before and the drivers are demanding action from within the GPDA. The events of the past week have encouraged a healthy debate about the protection of drivers of F1 and could prove to be the catalyst for changes that might one day save another life.

It seems likely that Massa’s accident will have a long lasting impact on the sport. It is an unfortunate but timely reminder that Formula One is very dangerous and that serious accidents are always going to happen. The best thing that anyone can do in these situations is to remember that you can’t make motorsport totally safe, but that you can minimise the risks involved. To do that you need to learn and ensure the safety of the sport evolves with the technology. The FIA have launched an official investigation into the incidents of the past week and will announce their findings in due course.

Until then, everyone’s best wishes are with Felipe Massa and his full recovery

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