The latest informed report regarding Felipe Massa has the Brazilian still in intensive care and under anaesthetic following his operation last night. Ferrari sources claim the operation was a success.

The Brazilian was visited last night by F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who subsequently told reporters: "The doctors are happy, he's in a stable condition. They will know a lot more tomorrow."

Meanwhile, fellow-Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, from whose car the spring fell that was to hit Massa, gave details of his visit to his fellow driver in the medical centre at the Hungaroring.

"He was conscious, he was moving, but he was very agitated with the fact that he had a cut on his head," said the Brawn driver. "With that, they sedated him for him to calm down, and then they moved him to hospital.

"I wanted to see him myself because I've been in situations like that," he added. "We are Brazilians and sometimes we have a family, sometimes we don't, and when we wake up all we want to see is someone we know. I wanted to be there in case there was not anybody from the family there."

The former Ferrari driver then said that Massa's freak accident, coming days after a similar incident claimed the life of 18-year-old Henry Surtees is a wake call to a sport that appears to have become complacent in terms of just how dangerous it really is.

"I honestly don't believe in coincidence in life. Things happen for a reason and I think this is the second message," he said.

"Imola was a message," he continued, referring to the weekend in May 1994 which saw Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna perish and the Brazilian miraculously surviving a horrendous crash of his own.

"The cars were improved," he added, then referring to last weekend's crash at Brands Hatch, continued. "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," he said.

Barrichello's was a view shared by World Champion Lewis Hamilton: "I believe things happen for a reason," he told reporters, "and for two incidents to happen in such a short period of time, we can't ignore it. We've got to make sure we learn from it, and improve if we can."

Ferrari is scheduled to issue its own update on its driver's progress later this morning.