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In the Christmas picture of the Schumacher family (from left to right: Mick, Gina-Maria and Corinna) one is missing: dad and husband Michael.
Roger BenoitFormula 1 expert
On January 3, 2023, the seven-time Formula 1 world champion will be 54 years old. And today, nine years or 470 weeks after his skiing accident in Méribel, we know as little as we did then! The brain damage stopped his normal existence on December 29, 2013. Two emergency surgeries kept him alive.
Colorful: “He can walk again!”
Since then, the 91-time GP winner, who survived 17 serious Formula 1 accidents, has been declared dead several times on social media – or “Die Bunte” even let him go exclusively on the cover in 2015!
But apart from denials, nothing comes from the villa on Lake Geneva, which is still strictly guarded. Manager Sabine Kehm (57) can answer the question “How is Schumi?” no longer hear. She says correctly: “Any statement would only open the door for new speculation!”
Daily care
After the first family photo taken together at Christmas 2022, one thing is clear: Michael, who is being cared for daily by physiotherapists because of the impending muscle atrophy, no longer wants to be shown to the public. Neither in bed nor in a wheelchair. That’s where privacy comes in.
As the Dalai Lama once said: “Remember that sometimes silence is the best answer!” For many fans, however, this is not satisfactory. But how many of his followers still want to know how Michael Schumacher is doing after nine years?
In 2018 it was 71 percent
On December 29, 2018, a poll on Blick-Online showed that 71 percent of the approximately 60,000 votes were in favor of open communication. Now it shouldn’t even be half. A female fan: “Humanity doesn’t have to know everything, it’s always the families who suffer.”
But that doesn’t apply in the film business, in politics or in the royal houses. There the public cries out for days after an accident, illness or crime.
Break after Haas adventure
Well, Michael Schumacher has lived on in the hearts of many supporters since his son Mick (23) started Formula 1 in March 2021 at the latest.
But after two years, 43 races, many crashes and twelve world championship points, Mick was pulled from Haas-Ferrari. Now Schumi junior has to hope for luck as a substitute driver at Mercedes or maybe Hamilton’s resignation at the end of the 2023 season…
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Michael Schumacher’s great career starts in 1991. He comes to race for Jordan and convinces. Benetton signed the German, who thanked the team with two points. Click through the pictures of Schumi’s career.
“I belong in Formula 1”
The pilot with the big name in his backpack continues to be combative: “I will make it. I will prove to my critics that I belong in Formula 1!” Only: You don’t just need a good car for a few Friday practice sessions!
At Mercedes, Mick was caught with a parachute after he was “thrown out”. And thus triggered a kind of wave of sympathy for the luxury brand in Germany’s media. And opened up the space for speculation. Uncle Ralf Schumacher: “Perhaps Hamilton will suddenly give up if Russell keeps driving away from him!”
The terrible pressure
Mick’s earlier dream of “world championship title with Ferrari” has burst. After almost five years, he was stripped of the red carpet at Maranello. He was fired from the Academy.
Party frenzy after winning a point: Mick Schumacher gets cummed on by sister Gina(01:12)
Some experts even deny Mick Schumacher’s great talent, saying that so far he has only benefited from his prominent name.
Of course, the former Formula 2 and Formula 3 champion knows that himself. Even if no major obstacles have been put in his way so far, one has to say in his honor: No other driver in Formula 1 has ever faced one Print.
The Drama of Méribel
Mick was present when his father had an accident nine years ago. So he experienced the horror up close at the age of 14. The drama: Michael fell with the helmet camera and hit a rock. A pin is said to have penetrated the skullcap!
Since then, the son has not been allowed to speak publicly about this difficult time. How fast was his father traveling back then? How far off the marked track did they go?
His greatest wish
Mick Schumacher has been silent for 3287 days. It was only in a recent Netflix documentary by the Schumacher family that Mick said a sentence that actually brutally reveals the hopeless situation: “I would give anything if I could talk to my father again!”
Movie coming September 15: This is the first trailer for the Netflix documentary about Schumi(01:54)
Nobody believes in miracles anymore. Only Michael’s friend, the Frenchman Jean Todt (76), with whom he celebrated five world titles at Ferrari, gives some hope in his few interviews. «I know everything about Michael. I watch a lot of races with him on TV. Maybe we’ll see him again in the paddock one day!”
Who knows Jeremy Martin?
No neurologist familiar with Jeremy Martin’s medical record would comment on this daring prognosis. Jeremy Martin was the name of patient Michael Schumacher in Lausanne hospital more than eight years ago.
The file thief hanged himself
Back then, in 2014, a German as a member of the Rega squad stole the hot papers – and offered them to various media for around 50,000 euros. All declined.
The 54-year-old man was exposed as a file thief and shortly afterwards hanged himself in his pre-trial detention cell in Zurich. That was on August 5, 2014.
joy and pain: Corinna Schumacher accepts the award for her Michael(00:17)
Hidden from Ferrari: Schumacher-Porsche is auctioned for 1.5 million(00:59)
Jean Todt about Schumacher: “When I met him, he was green behind the ears”(00:31)