It's been almost a year since Tiago Monteiro suffered the testing accident that forced him to miss the end of the 2017 World Touring Car Championship season.
In the first few weeks following the crash there were noises from the ex-Formula 1 racer's camp that he was targeting a return at the next round or the one after that. But in reality, the man who led the championship by 12 points prior to the accident was facing a battle to live a normal life, never mind get back behind the steering wheel.
When the brakes failed in his Honda Civic as he attempted to decelerate from around 160mph for the first corner of Barcelona's Catalunya circuit, on his final run during a three-day test, the 11-time WTCC race winner was pitched into the barriers with huge force.
The impact left the 41-year-old with a series of serious injuries, including two broken vertebrae, blood clots on the brain, a badly twisted knee and a dislocated shoulder, and unable to eat and talk after his throat had become dislodged.
But while there was some initial concern about whether the clots would need operating on, the most serious of all his injuries occurred as the impact force effectively caused both of his eyes to pop out, stretching the nerves and making it impossible for him to see properly, never mind drive.
"It was really, really bad," Monteiro admits. "But we didn't want to scare people. Even though it was quite dark, there was still the possibility that everything could come back. A small probability, but still some chance. It was our decision not to comment on it.
"Now things are going well and we defied most of the prognosis, and all the doctors who were pessimistic are now very excited. They think I am a case study they want to work on to understand what I did and all the efforts that have been done, because the reality is that I was probably very lucky with the extent of my injuries and the way my body reacted.
"I had hope. I had that will and I had that strength. That's what saved me in a way"
Tiago Monteiro
"I had a headache for months and months and months. It was impossible to sleep because I couldn't stay in the same position for more than 15 minutes. The cartilage in both my ears was completely smashed, so I couldn't lay on my side. It was a nightmare! And as soon as I was lying down my head was pumping, pumping.
"But at the same time I was leading the championship - it was totally unrealistic, but deep inside of me I was hoping I could be back for the next race, or the next race. I mean, come on man! You're blind, you can't really walk and you think you're going to race!
"And that's what saved me in a way. I had that hope. I had that will and I had that strength. Because to take this was such a painful effort - physically and psychologically - that if I didn't have that will to come back race by race, even though everybody around me probably knew that I was never going to make it, they were helping me and pushing me towards that, and that gave me this goal and that helped me to make all this effort."
The rehabilitation has been long and complicated. After spending 10 days in intensive care in Spain, Monteiro was repatriated to Portugal, where he spent a further two weeks under those conditions. A further two weeks in hospital followed before he was sent home to continue his recovery.
"If I didn't cover one eye, I was throwing up like I was drunk, then I'd try to move but I couldn't, although to be standing up after five weeks was great. If I tried to bend down I could barely move a couple of centimetres. So after two weeks at home doing nothing - I couldn't read, watching TV would hurt - it was really boring and really hard, and I just wanted to get on with it."
Through its long motorbike racing history, Honda has lots of experience in dealing with recuperating athletes and the specialist medical care they require, while the racing community rallied around Monteiro by making introductions to pioneering doctors across the world.
As well as speech therapy, physiotherapy and osteopathy, there was a host of treatments required to aide and encourage his eyes back to something approaching normality.
"The prognosis I had was really bad because I had it on both sides, so your brain forgets what is normal. Even if it's not severe, and it's just stretched, there is a possibility that the nerve comes back, but many times it doesn't because your brain doesn't remember what it is to see clearly."
He did 60 hours in a hyperbaric chamber at minus two bars of pressure, to help to regenerate the cells. He underwent ozone-therapy, where the blood is taken out, mixed in a machine with ozone and then put it back. Again, this helps the cells to regenerate much faster. He went to San Diego to see a doctor who put him on a drip eight hours a day that was a mix of amino acids and vitamins. And he has had the powerful anti-inflamatory Etanercept injected into his brain. This a pioneering process that a doctor in Florida has been using to help stroke victims recover more quickly and effectively.
"It was amazing! It was a huge help for my vision," says Monteiro. "It improved every time I had the treatment and that made me feel physically much more relaxed. I've done that five times already.
"I had four botox injections, not outside for the wrinkles, but inside the eye! It's awful. The reason is that is anaesthetises the nerves and muscles that are pulling the eye towards your nose. So it relaxes it and also makes the eye a little bit more open, which helps the brain to understand how things should be."
The extent of the accident Monteiro suffered, and the fact that both eyes were affected, meant he was in an unprecedented position: people normally don't survive impacts of that magnitude, so there were effectively no test cases.
"Honestly, apart from the pain, and the fact that I've lost the championship, I can almost only see positives"
Tiago Monteiro
This meant that he was a fascinating test case for some elements of the medical community, but also that he could potentially receive a lot of contradictory advice and diagnosis. But a combination of the treatment he has received and his determination to get back to full fitness, means that he is now back into a position where he's fit enough to test the car, although he will need to be cleared by the FIA before he's given the green light to make a race return.
He claims his eyesight is '98%' back. To look him in the eye you would struggle to notice anything amiss, but when he moves his head to the side quickly it's obvious that there is a small delay between the movement of the eyes, with right lagging a spilt second behind the left.
But Honda has been completely supportive, making a car ready for Monteiro to return to what is now the WTCR whenever he's able to do so. He's had his contract extended, become an ambassador for the brand and is helping to advise his replacement Benjamin Lessennes.
"Also the fans and the motorsport world were just amazing. I think that probably 60-70% of the grid in Formula 1 - including team principals - people that I hadn't seen for years and years, texted me or messaged me. It was amazing. There was a lot of concern, and there was such strong support, that it created strong motivation for me to come back."
Monteiro says that he will only commit to a racing return if he feels quick enough behind the wheel. His times in testing have been in the ballpark, but he acknowledges that racing will be harder. But while he was one of the more mature drivers in the WTCC, the return of tin-top legends such as Yvan Muller, Fabrizio Giovanardi and Gabriele Tarquini to WTCR means that he would barely be an elder statesmen in the revitalised series.
But whether he is able to pick up where he left off as a title contender driving as well as he had done in a career encompassing Champ Car, Le Mans as well as that most unlikely of F1 podiums, the real triumph will have been in being able to lead a normal life with his family.
"I've learned so much," he says. "Honestly, apart from the pain, and the fact that I've lost the championship, I can almost only see positives. I've learned so much about myself, about life, about people, about stress management, I've discovered so many ways of enjoying life, appreciating other things.
"It's stupid that it takes that for it to happen, but that's the way it is. I am a better person in general, I care more about other things, I enjoy life more. I knew I was very fortunate before to be in a position where I was, but you never realise it as much as when something is taken away from you and you want it so much."
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