Michael Schumacher's British Grand Prix crash has prompted plans for safer run-off areas at circuits. FIA safety experts are believed to be working on a special surface to help slow cars when they plunge off the track.

Schumacher, who was released from a Swiss clinic yesterday and will finish his convalescence at his Swiss home, broke his right leg after his Ferrari careered over a gravel trap at Silverstone and smashed head on into a tyre barrier. The accident on July 11th ruled him out of Formula One for three months, ending his world championship hopes.

Fellow drivers criticised the run-off area after the race, claiming it failed to slow Schumacher sufficiently before he hit the wall. Tests conducted by the FIA showed that the German struck the barrier at 75 miles per hour, much slower than initial estimates suggested. He had first braked at 190 miles per hour. "The gravel was not efficient in Michael's case," FIA president Max Mosley said yesterday. "He (Michael) said it didn't feel as though he was slowing at all. The basic problem you have is that a car goes out of control and ideally you want to stop it before it hurts someone, and that was always the idea with gravel."

FIA technical adviser Peter Wright believes that gravel should not be discounted completely. "Gravel beds don't work as badly as people think, but we have a lot of data on how well cars brake on the track and off it," he said. "We have put forward the idea that maybe in some cases you would be better off with a specially designed tarmac than gravel. It is not the perfect solution, but it is something that we are looking at very seriously."

Eddie Irvine was back in the news yesterday as he gave fresh fuel to the growing belief that he will leave Ferrari after this season. Irvine, who is number one after Schumacher's crash, said he wanted the German to be his number two when Schumacher's broken leg healed. "When Michael Schumacher is back, he will have to drive for me, as I have done for him for the past three years to help him win the world championship," Irvine said. "Now it's his turn."

Irvine accepted the team still considered Schumacher its number one driver and that might lead to Irvine's departure. "We'd have to see. I can't imagine (myself still driving for Ferrari) because when Michael comes back he'll certainly be the team's number one," Irvine told Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.