The 80-year-old, who won 16 Grand Prix races between 1951 and 1961, called the accident a "shunt" and said he would be "bouncing back" soon.

Sir Stirling is recovering in hospital following the accident at his home in Mayfair, west London, on 7 March.

He said: "I would like to thank everybody kind enough to write to me."

'Take it easy'

Sir Stirling continued: "I am not feeling great, but I am feeling better.

"Obviously I am going to take it easy, which is a bit of a bore.

"But I should be bouncing back as soon as I possibly can.

"Hopefully that means I will be meeting a lot of you in the next few months."

The retired sportsman, considered by many to be the greatest Formula One driver never to have won a championship, also broke four bones in his foot and chipped four vertebrae when the lift door opened at the wrong time and he stepped into the empty shaft.