GPDA wants improved response

The dazed Williams driver was left unattended in his car for almost three minutes after crashing at over 150mph. He also tried to get out of the car himself, even though he had sustained two fractured vertabra.

The GPDA's Jarno Trulli said at Magny-Cours: "We weren't very happy about some action that was taken - with the doctors and ambulances and the fact that for several laps we went past the accident [through debris]."

Fellow GPDA committee member Mark Webber, having studied a video of the incident, said: "It was massively surprising. Clearly, in this modern era, that was a long, long time [that Schumacher remained unattended] considering it was on a short track with fantastic facilities.

"You can never get there soon enough. Twenty seconds is a long time in some cases. I'm sure there will be something said in the next 24 hours when we see Sid [Watkins, the FIA medical delegate] and Charlie [Whiting, the FIA's race director] but there are always two sides to the story and hindsight is a fine thing. You can say that we should have run through the pit lane or done X,Y and Z, but until Ralf's crash I think everything was fine.

"We have to acknowledge that it wasn't the best show ever but nothing was done intentionally. We will talk about it but spraying it all in public is not going to help anyone. It's happened and we'll sort it out inside. It's the first and last time it will happen. Ralf is lucky he's relatively well but it was actually the impact that hurt him, not the length of the response time."

Schumacher will be out of action for at least three weeks due to his injuries sustained in the Indy crash.