REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, GRENOBLE - the seven times Formula One champion Michael Schumacher is under the care of Professor Gerard Saillant, a brain and spinal injury expert who is also president of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) Institute. Saillant said it was still impossible to say how Schumacher's condition would progress in coming days.

"We are a little less worried than yesterday but I'm sure you understand that the situation could change this evening or tomorrow," he told the news conference.

Schumacher, who lives in Switzerland with his wife and two children, is the most successful Formula One driver of all times with a record 91 race victories in a career spanning more than two decades. He left the sport last year after a less successful three-year comeback with Mercedes following an earlier retirement from Ferrari at the end of 2006.

French authorities have opened an investigation into the accident, which took place as Schumacher was out skiing with his teenage son. Ferrari always used to have an annual January gathering with their drivers in the Dolomites and Schumacher, a fitness fanatic, impressed with his skiing ability.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been deeply shocked to learn of his accident, her spokesman said on Monday as expressions of concern poured in from fans, former team-mates and rivals. Former British Formula One driver David Coulthard said he believed Schumacher had not won the full recognition he merited for taking his sport to new heights.

"I only hope Michael Schumacher pulls through so that he can see all the nice things people are saying about him," Coulthard wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

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