Michael Schumacher’s family breaks eight years of silence about the condition of the racing driver

CORINNA Schumacher, wife of the seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher, spoke about her husband’s state of health for the first time since the skiing accident in 2013 with severe head injuries.

Schumacher’s family had so far refused to discuss the matter, with a desire for privacy that led to ongoing speculation about the former racing driver’s condition. But Corinna Schumacher said in an interview that was conducted as part of the upcoming Netflix documentary Schumacher: “Michael is here. Different, but he’s here, and that’s what gives us strength, I think. “

“We’re together,” she said. “We live together at home. We do therapy. We do everything we can to make Michael better and make sure he is comfortable. And so that he simply feels our family, our solidarity. “

Regarding the accident in which her husband nearly lost his life on a family vacation in the French Alps, she said: “I never blamed God for what happened. It was just really bad luck, all the bad luck you can have in life. “

Although Schumacher had driven in Formula 1 since the early 1990s and won 92 Grand Prix in the course of his career, Schumacher’s only major injury up to that point was a broken leg in an accident at Silverstone in 1999.

After graduating from karting and formula racing, Schumacher made his F1 debut for Jordan-Ford in Spa in 1991. A time at Benetton earned him his first two drivers’ championships in 1994 and 1995.

His move to Ferrari marked the beginning of a phase of dominance for the German driver and helped change the fortunes of a team that had been languishing for some time.

In 1999, Ferrari won its first constructors ‘championship since 1983, and with Schumacher winning the drivers’ championship in 2000, the pair enjoyed dazzling success over the next four years in a row before ousting Renault and Fernando Alonso in 2005.

Schumacher had withdrawn from Formula 1 the year before his skiing accident after leaving the Mercedes team at the end of the 2012 season.

The upcoming Netflix documentary, which includes interviews with his broader family, attempts to paint a more human portrait of Schumacher; a man who could appear prickly at times, so focused was he on success, which he achieved with almost machine-like regularity. As the documentary shows, he was a man plagued by self-doubt who felt the pressure to keep winning.

“Of course I miss Michael every day,” said his wife. “But not only do I miss him. The children, the family, his father, everyone around him. I mean, everyone misses Michael. “

Corinna Schumacher emphasizes that, despite the latest interview, little will change in her family’s attitude towards her husband’s privacy.

“Private is private, as he always said. It is very important to me that he can continue to enjoy his private life as much as possible. Michael has always protected us and now we protect Michael. “

The documentary Schumacher will be released on Netflix on September 15th.

Tweet on @ST_Driving Follow @ST_Driving