Ferrari confident of Massa recovery

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."