Michael Schumacher suffered life-changing injuries in a skiing accident in the French Alps more than a decade ago and information about the F1 legend’s condition has been scarce ever since.
Michael Schumacher transcended Formula 1 – the sport is very popular these days, but was rather more niche when the German was in his pomp.
But still, he was a household name, a seven-time F1 champion who enjoyed the vast majority of his success with Ferrari. It was a driver and team partnership which remains possibly the most iconic the sport has ever seen.
Schumacher ‘s fame and popularity meant there was a huge outpouring of emotion when news broke of his life-changing skiing accident in December 2013. And, ever since, the appetite for updates on his condition and wellbeing has been huge.
But true snippets of information have been few and far between. Though he lived so publicly because of his racing career, Schumacher was a private person and his fiercely protective wife Corinna has done her utmost to respect that since the accident.
We know from medical reports that, in December 2013, Schumacher suffered a traumatic brain injury when he fell while skiing off-piste in the French Alps and hit his head on a rock. He was airlifted to hospital and placed in a medically induced coma which, a few months later, he came out of.
But though he survived, it was clear he would never be the same again. He was allowed to return to the family home near Lake Geneva the following September where he has been cared for since by Corinna and a team of medical staff, with only a select few trusted people allowed to see him and know the extent of his injuries.
The inner circle is so tight that even some close relatives have been excluded at times. That includes Michael’s brother Ralf, also a former F1 racer, who now works as a pundit for Sky Germany’s coverage of the sport and admitted last year that his brother’s side of the family “go their own way”.
But there are small signs that Corinna might be softening her stance on that front. Ralf and his partner Etienne were among those present at the wedding of Michael’s daughter, Gina-Maria, last weekend. The 27-year-old wed Iain Bethke in a lavish ceremony at the family’s £27million villa in Majorca on Saturday afternoon.
It has not been confirmed whether or not the stricken F1 legend was there to see his daughter walk down the aisle. But Bild claims it is “very likely” that Michael was in attendance, while it is known that he has been flown out to the Majorca villa before. And not everyone in Schumacher’s life was in attendance, including his former manager Willi Weber who has said he did not receive an invite.
Weber worked with Schumacher up until his final retirement from F1 in 2012, and recently said the racer was “one of my best friends”. But he has not been allowed into the inner circle of people trusted with information about his condition.
One of the few former F1 allies of the racer who has been allowed to see him is his old Ferrari team principal, Jean Todt. The Frenchman, also a former president of the FIA, has largely kept his mouth closed publicly out of loyalty to Michael and Corinna, but has said that he has been allowed to see his old colleague.
He told Bild: “I’ve spent a lot of time with Corinna since Michael had his serious skiing accident on December 29, 2013. She is a great woman and runs the family. She hadn’t expected that. It happened suddenly and she had no choice. But she does it very well. I trust her, she trusts me. Thanks to the work of his doctors and the cooperation of Corinna, who wanted him to survive, he survived – but with consequences.”
The exact nature of the ‘consequences’ is largely unknown. Corinna has described her husband as being “different” to how he was before, while son Mick – who followed in his father’s footsteps into F1 and raced for Haas for two seasons, before joining his dad’s old team Mercedes as a reserve – said Michael’s illness means he’s unable to communicate.
In 2019, he was widely reported to have undergone stem cell treatment in a bid to regenerate his nervous system. Le Parisien reported he was admitted for transfusions of inflammation-reducing stem cells, and also quoted an unnamed nurse who claimed Schumacher had shown signs of recovery.
It was Elisabetta Gregoraci, the ex-wife of former F1 team boss Flavio Briatore, who first claimed that Michael has been staying more often at the family’s Majorcan villa. She said: ‘Michael does not talk, he gets across a point with his eyes. Right now, he can only receive three people and I know who they are. They went to live in Spain and his wife has put a hospital in that house.
In 2021, Corinna agreed to take part in a Netflix documentary, titled ‘Schumacher’, in which she continued to keep key details private but spoke of her own experience and said: “I miss Michael every day. But it’s not just me who misses him. It’s the children, the family, his father, everyone around him. Everybody misses Michael, but Michael is here – different, but here. He still shows me how strong he is every day.
“We live together at home. We do therapy. We do everything we can to make Michael better and to make sure he’s comfortable. And to simply make him feel our family, our bond. And no matter what, I will do everything I can. We all will.
“We’re trying to carry on as a family, the way Michael liked it and still does. And we are getting on with our lives. It’s very important to me that he can continue to enjoy his private life as much as possible. Michael always protected us, and now we are protecting Michael.”
Most touching of all was he and his son Mick stating he wished he could have pursued motorsport properly without his father getting in the way. After making it to F1, he said: However, after the accident, of course, these experiences, these moments which, I think, people have with their parents, are no more or are much less. And in my opinion, it comes out a bit unfair.
I believe that me and dad, we would comprehend each other at a different level now. It’s not because we share a common language – the language of motorsport – and as there are far more topics to discuss. And that is where my head is most of the time. They thought that would be so cool… I will sell the cross for a dream of such encounters.”
What the world will be able to see Schumacher again is still under the question mark. The fact that he turned up at his daughter’s wedding as other guest were present clearly indicates that Corinna is willing to tone down the war.
And, as his partner Laila Hasanovic had posted a picture on a social networking site, wearing a diamond engagement ring in her engagement picture, there may be possibly another happy family function for him to attend.