(CNN) -- Felipe Massa has been woken successfully three times to make contact with his family, one of the surgeons who operated on the Brazilian Formula One star told CNN on Monday, after a horror crash in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix left the driver needing surgery on a fractured skull.
Peter Bazso, the medical director of the AEK hospital in Budapest, confirmed that Massa's injuries had been "life-threatening" after he careered off the Hungaroring at 200kph in his Ferrari, but that his condition was now "slightly improving."
Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello was also optimistic after visiting his fellow Brazilian on Monday afternoon.
"I saw the doctor and he said that [Massa] had reacted well when he first saw the doctor and reacted well when he saw his father," he told waiting reporters.
"I asked the doctor 'as someone who has no understanding of medicine, how will he be?' the doctor said 'most probably he is going to be 100 percent fine"
Bazso told CNN said he had watched Saturday's accident on television and his team, who specialize in brain injuries, was immediately put on standby to operate as Massa was airlifted to his hospital. Does safety need to be improved in Formula One?
Massa was hit on the helmet by a spring which had fallen off the rear of the Barrichello's Brawn.
The impact left Massa concussed and he lost control of his Ferrari on the high speed Turn Four before ploughing into a tire barrier.
Bazso and his team performed a two-hour emergency operation shortly after Massa arrived at the hospital, which also caters for the Hungarian military.
He remains in a medically-induced coma in intensive care but Bazso said there were good signs of a recovery.
"We tried to wake him up three times so he could make contact with his family and each time we were successful," he said.
Massa's parents and his pregnant wife Anna Rafaela flew to Hungary to be at his bedside after the accident.