Felipe Massa (top) will be able to resume his grand prix career but it won't happen until the start of next season. In the meantime BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica has become the latest of a long list of drivers to be linked with his vacant seat.

As the Italian media goes into feverish overdrive speculating as to who will drive Felipe Massa's Ferrari F60 in the Italian Grand Prix in fifteen days time the team has announced today that although the Brazilian's recovery is going well he won't be back in the cockpit until next season.

The news that he wouldn't be back in the red car this year came following a day of medical examinations in Miami for Massa: "Naturally the results were received with great joy and satisfaction at Maranello with the prospect to be able to count on Felipe 100 percent for the start of the next racing season," read the statement. Massa had been targeting a return at his home grand prix in Brazil on October 18, the penultimate race of the year meaning that he would have appeared in two more rounds (the closing race is in Dubai on November 1).

In the meantime the Italian media's weekend hot favourite to replace the underperforming stand-in driver Luca Badoer in Massa's #3 car, Force India's star of the Spa-Francorchamps weekend Giancarlo Fisichella, has been replaced at the top of the speculation list be by BMW Sauber's Polish star Robert Kubica.

It was in fact a long day yesterday for Massa who was seen by doctors after the Scuderia Ferrari driver flew to Miami on Sunday for an important check up that was carried out by Professor Stephen Olvey, Head of the Jackson Memorial Hospital Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit.

The checks (neurometric and impact tests, cognitive capacity tests) all had a positive outcome Ferrari reported in a statement issued today, just like the eye exam. It means "everything is in order for Felipe to get back to racing," Ferrari said. However he will have what is being described as a small operation on his skull where the errant spring from Rubens Barrichello's car hit Massa's helmet during the accident at the Hungaroring at the end of July. "The surgery will take place in the upcoming days. After a short convalescence Felipe can then gradually start with physical preparations," read the statement.

"I’m very happy about the results," Felipe told the official Ferrari website before boarding the plane back to Sao Paulo. "After the small surgery in the next days I can finally start to go to the gym to get back into shape and drive some tests in karts. On the track with a Formula 1 single-seater? Let’s take it step by step: at the moment I’m concentrating on taking up physical activities, which is a great step forward."