A doctor who treated Michael Schumacher for nearly six months after his skiing accident says the Formula One star is no longer in a coma, and predicted a possible recovery within three years.

Jean-Francois Payen, a doctor at the hospital in Grenoble, France, that treated Schumacher after his injury in December last year, said he had visited the Schumacher family at home in Switzerland to track his patient's progress.

“Life after a head injury is punctuated by stages,” Dr Payen said. He predicted a convalescence of one to three years, adding: “We hope, but we have to give him time.”

The German driver was with his 14-year-old son in the French Alps when he fell, hitting the side of his head on a rock, cracking his helmet.