BUDAPEST: A full investigation into the causes and repercussions of Ferrari driver Felipe Massa's dreadful freak accident during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix was launched on Sunday.

The investigation will be conducted by the sport's ruling body, the International Motoring Federation (FIA), with the Brawn GP team.

It comes as the hospital where the Brazilian is being treated said that Massa will remain in an induced coma for the next 48 hours after undergoing surgery on a skull fracture on Saturday.

Doctors at the AEK Hospital in Budapest said however that they had been reassured by a scan on Sunday morning.

"The result of the CT is reassuring," said doctor in chief Peter Bazso.

"It brought the result which are expected after such an injury. We woke him up temporarily to see what his condition is and also if he could speak to the family members."

Bazso said that Massa's condition remained critical but stable.

"Yes, he is in a life threatening condition," said Bazso.

"He is in an acute phase. What can come next, we don't know."

He added: "He's now under sedation again. He will remain so for the next 48 hours because after such an operation, it's the safest to keep the patient sleeping for 48 hours.

"The sedation also improves minor decelaration injuries. From time to time, we'll wake him up temporarily. There is no intervention at the moment."

Massa suffered skull and eye injuries, as well as brain concussion, when he was struck on the head by a spring that broke loose from compatriot Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP car.

The debris hit Massa's helmet just above his left eye at around 275 kph.

The carbon-fibre helmet absorbed most of the energy from the spring and appeared to save his life.

Barrichello, a fellow-native of Sao Paulo and a close friend of Massa, visited Massa at the hospital on Saturday evening. Massa's father, mother and pregnant wife were flying to Hungary from Brazil.

The accident came just six days after Briton Henry Surtees, 18, the son of former world champion John Surtees, was killed after being hit on the head by a wheel from another car that crashed during a Formula Two race at Brands Hatch in England.

It also brought back memories of the fatal accident that claimed the life of Ayrton Senna during the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola in 1994 when a piece of debris penetrated his racing helmet.

Since then massive safety advances in Formula One have seen helmets improved - the latest generation are said to be twice as strong as their predecessors - and the sides of cockpits raised and strengthened.

The drivers now also wear head and neck restraint devices to protect them from high G-forces in major accidents.

Ross Brawn, boss of the Brawn team, said he would do all he could to find out exactly what had happened, but warned against knee-jerk reactions.

A close friend of both drivers, having been in charge of them previously at Ferrari where Massa succeeded Barrichello as team-mate to German Michael Schumacher, he said a proper study was required.

"We need to keep a perspective on it - from what's been seen last weekend and this, we need to have a proper study to see if we need to do anything," he said.

"You can have covers or canopies but you have to be able to get at the driver and extract him (from the car) if there is an accident. And you don't want anything that collapses down on a driver.

"In the history of F1 it is a fairly rare occurrence, but we must take it seriously and see what we can do. We must make sure we don't do something that makes the situation worse."

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh said the Surtees and Massa crashes should act as a safety wake-up call similar to that which followed Imola in 1994 when Senna and Roland Ratzenberger were killed.

"Inevitably we all become complacent if we're not confronted with a serious accident," he said. "Obviously '94 was a massive wake-up call for all of us in Formula One at the time.

"It led to everyone, the FIA, teams, contributing to a lot of big steps forward in safety and I think we have to go again. For everyone involved we've got to make sure we do everything we can."

He added: "Motor racing is dangerous and racing drivers are incredibly brave -- and that is something we should all remember. Every time a racing driver goes up the pit-lane we become a bit nonchalant about it."

Barrichello, who survived a dreadful accident at Imola, 48 hours before Senna's death there in 1994, dismissed talk of rare and sad coincidences. He said something should be done.

Barrichello 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 last weekend, which is tremendously sad.

"It is not a coincidence that something happened right now. In the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers' Association), we talked quite a lot about it. Something needs to be done. Absolutely."

He added: "We need to sit down and have a look at it. I think the cars are a hell of a lot safer, really a lot safer. But there is no coincidence on this fact that something that needs to be looked at."

Defending world champion Briton Lewis Hamilton said: "I believe things happen for a reason 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."

- AFP/yt