Following Ralf Schumacher's high-speed crash at Indianapolis, Pitpass' Medical Delegate Dr Iain Corness, made his own assessment of the situation, claiming that the German would, and indeed should, be out of F1 for some time.

That was before German doctors revealed that the WilliamsF1 star had injured his back in the crash, rather than simply sustaining heavy bruising.

Dr Corness re-assesses the situation.

"Since the reports all refer to his 'back' rather than his 'neck', I would suggest that he has either a 'crush' fracture of a vertebral body (which is a very outside chance and should have been able to be picked up on the Sunday night) or is a hairline fracture of one of the side 'arms' that stick out from the vertebrae, or ditto of one of the 'spines' that you can feel down your back (the knobbly bits). None of which are really important.

"Hairline fractures are like a cracked cup. Enough force to crack the glaze, but not enough for it all to fall in half! They are also very difficult to pick up immediately post trauma, and really only show up a week afterwards, when the healing/inflammation takes place along the fracture line, which can be seen by various types of X-Rays.

"I would not criticize my American colleagues for missing one of these, as Max M has done (obliquely). Since you can't put the spine in plaster, I would allow 12 weeks for the healing, but I still feel that concussion is the greatest worry. Again, since I am not in receipt of his medical file, this is a guess, but I would suggest that four months is not too far out. That would mean that he would not be back in the seat this year."