Felippe Massa Walks Out Of Hospital Nine Days After Formula One Crash

Sporting a gnarly scar across his forehead, Ferrari driver Felipe Massa today walked out of a Budapest hospital and onto a private plane headed for Brazil, just nine days after a crash that sent him into emergency brain surgery. Massa even told reporters that his replacement shouldn’t get too cozy, because he’ll be back soon. Basically, Felipe Massa is the coolest guy ever.

The ordeal began for the 28-year old racer on July 25th when he was struck in the head by an errant spring during qualifying laps at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Doctors performed emergency surgery, removing pices of skull to relieve swelling in the brain, and gave cautious prognoses before he began moving on his own. Now, nine days later, here he is boarding a plane on his own strength, out of pure epic coolness. In the meantime, Team Ferrari is pulling 7-time world champ Michael Shumacher out of retirement to fill Massa’s position. Massa gave his blessing, praising Shumacher but adding that he hopes to be back on the track “as soon as possible.”

So now Massa is on his way back home to Brazil with his 6-months pregnant wife, piecing together the events of the last week and a half (he says he doesn’t remember what happened and had to have doctors explain to him why he was in the hospital in the first place.)  He still has a couple of days in a Brazillian hospital before officially being released, but considering that it’s only been about a week since the dude had pieces of skull removed he’s in pretty good shape. So cheers to Felipe. We hope you are once again strapped into your terrifying, rapidly moving crashmobile before you even know it.

Michael Schumacher is the best man for Ferrari, says Felipe Massa [Guardian UK]
Massa leaves hospital in Hungary, on his way home [AP]