Michael Schumacher, ten years after the brutal accident that transformed his life into one of the great mysteries of sport

Three hundred and six races played, 91 victories and seven world titles they converted to Michael Schumacher in a legend of Formula 1 and one of the most famous athletes of his time. But for a decade his existence has been shrouded in the most hermetic and attentive silence. The accident suffered by the multiple champion on 29 December 2013, exactly ten years agoIt not only changed his life forever but also that of his family and closest friends.

Schumacher had been permanently away from the circuits for more than a year. After an initial retirement in 2006 and an unproductive return to the track in 2010 (he only got on the podium once in three seasons), he announced his farewell to Formula 1 in October 2012. “I wasn’t sure I had the motivation. ” and the energy needed to continue. It’s not my style to continue if I’m not 100%. “This decision gives me a feeling of relief,” he later justified.

The former pilot was enjoying his retirement that December 29th when fell while skiing outside the limits of the slopes at the Méribel station, in the French Alps, e he hit his head on a stone. “It was clear there wasn’t enough snow. There weren’t ideal conditions for skiing on the slopes either. It was very dangerous to venture off the slopes on a day like that,” said an instructor who worked there and participated years later. Schumi.

The German was transferred by helicopter to the nearest hospital, where they ascertained that his health condition was extremely serious, then he was immediately transferred to the University Hospital of Grenoble, where he was operated on twice. Over there He remained in a coma for six months.until its revival in June 2014.

The former pilot was transferred to his home in September, on the shores of Lake Geneva, in Geneva (Switzerland), where he began a long rehabilitation process. That was the moment of greatest visibility: paparazzi from all over the world they tried to take a photograph of the place, despite the request for privacy from Corinna, the wife of the seven-time champion.

Both Corinna and the couple’s children, Mick and Gina-Maria, have protected Michael’s privacy tooth and nail. In fact, only a small group of friends have managed in recent years to break the family fence and visit the former champion. The news trickled in until 2021, when the Netflix platform released a documentary titled Schumacherin which his successful career is reconstructed and his health situation is also addressed based on the testimonies of relatives and friends.

“It was just bad luck, the worst in life. It’s terrible to wonder why this is happening to Michael or to us. “Why couldn’t it have been otherwise?” Corinna complained in the documentary.

“Of course I miss him every day. And not only me, but also the children, the family, his father, everyone around him. But he is still here and this gives strength to all of us. We are together, we live at home together and we do what we can to ensure that Michael is as well as possible and that he feels our family bond. Whatever happens, I will do everything I can,” he added.

Also in the documentary, Mick, son of the multiple champion and reserve driver for the Mercedes team, told how his bond with his father changed after the accident. “Those experiences, those typical moments of a family are no longer there. At least not like before. And in my opinion it is very unfair,” he said, visibly moved.

“I think my father and I would understand each other differently now. We would speak a very similar language, that of motorsport, and we would have a lot to talk about. And that’s what I can’t stop thinking about. I think about how beautiful it would have been. I would give anything to have it“, acknowledged Mick, who in 2024 will compete with the Alpine team in the World Endurance Championship.

After his participation in the Netflix documentary, the former pilot’s inner circle once again opted for silence. However, others spoke, each in his own way.

In 2022, Will WebberSchumacher’s former manager, published the book”“Fuel in the blood”, in which he criticized the German, who he called “stingy” and “evil”, but stressed that if he could talk to him, he would tell him that he would always be “there to fix everything”. Instead, he charged Corinna and Jean Todtformer president of the International Automobile Federation, for keeping him out of the Schumacher universe after the accident.

The position of was very different Eddie Giordanothe man who debuted Schumi in Formula 1 in 1991, at just 22 years old, in the team that bore his surname. In March this year he supported Corinna over her handling of a situation which he described as “horrible”. “He hasn’t been able to go to a party or lunch for almost 10 years. “She’s like a prisoner, because everyone wants to talk to her about Michael, when she doesn’t need to be reminded every minute,” she said.

Jordan said he had tried to visit Schumacher several times, but had always been refused by the former driver’s wife. In any case he considers Corinna’s decision understandable and explains what justifications she had received: “He told me: ‘We love you, Eddie, and have been with you a long time, but we need privacy and attention for Michael.’”.

In the absence of official information, the German magazine Die Aktuelle In April he resorted to a resource that was as surprising as it was questionable: he announced an alleged conversation with Schumacher. “No scattered and nebulous half sentences from friends. Your answers! By Michael Schumacher! Here it is: the fantastic interview! With redemptive answers to the burning questions everyone has been asking for so long,” reads the cover.

Obviously it turned out to be a farce: It was speech generated with an artificial intelligence program. A few hours after publication, the publishing house Funke Mediengruppe fired journalist Anne Hoffmann, editor-in-chief of Die Aktuelle. “This tasteless and misleading article should never have appeared. It does not at all meet the journalistic standards that we and our readers expect from a publisher like Funke,” underlined the managing director of the publishing group Bianca Pohlmann.

In the month of September, Roger Benoîtjournalist, friend of the former driver and one of the few people authorized by the family to visit him, admitted that Schumacher was “a desperate case”. When questioned about the situation of his friend, in an interview with the Swiss newspaper Blick, Benoit declared: “There is only one answer to this question and it is the one his son gave: “I would give anything to talk to dad”. This sentence says it all about how your father has been doing for more than 3,500 days.

Hours after Michael’s accident, ten years ago, it was Ralf, one of his brothers and former Formula 1 driver, who remembered the multiple champion. “Sometimes life is unfair. Michael was often lucky in his life, but then came this tragic accident. We have managed to do something thanks to the possibilities of modern medicine, but nothing is still the same as before. His accident was a painful and embarrassing experience for me too. I have missed him ever since,” he said in statements published Tuesday by the German newspaper Bild.