Michael Schumacher news: A year after coming out of coma there have been precious few signs of progress

With no update on German's progress since anniversary of accident in December, mood music does not suggest German is on path to full recovery



There has not been an update on Michael Schumacher's progress since the anniversary of the accident last December Photo: GETTY IMAGES

A year ago came ago the news which left Formula One and Michael Schumacher’s devoted fans finally feeling upbeat, with hope of more positive updates to come. But in the 12 months since Schumacher’s manager announced he was no longer in a coma, there have been precious few messages or signs of progress.

There have not been any bulletins – sparing throughout Schumacher’s ordeal – since the anniversary of the skiing accident last December. Tellingly, the last words on Schumacher came from Bernie Ecclestone, F1’s chief executive and friend of the former Ferrari driver. Confirming he had not visited Schumacher, Ecclestone did not offer encouraging signs.

"I don't want to see Michael like that,” Ecclestone said. “I remember Michael as he was. That is how I want to see Michael. If he comes back, that is how I want Michael to be."

On June 16 last year, Sabine Kehm, the seven-time champion’s manager, confirmed Schumacher had left hospital in Grenoble, France, nearly six months on from the skiing accident in the French Alps which almost killed him.

The German F1 legend was moved to a rehabilitation clinic in Lausanne, Switzerland, closer to the family home on the shore of Lake Geneva. He spent three months there before he left hospital to be at home with his wife, Corinna, children Mick and Gina-Maria, and a specialist team of nurses and doctors to help his recovery.


Fans of Schumacher gathered outside hospital in Greenoble to mark his 45th birthday last year

After that announcement in November, Kehm said: “Considering the severe head injuries he suffered, progress has been made in the past weeks and months. There is still, however, a long and difficult road ahead.

“We ask that the privacy of Michael’s family continue to be respected, and that speculations about the state of his health are avoided.”

Since then, other than the rejuvenation of Schumacher’s website and a message in December that he faces a “long fight”, that has largely been it. Instead it has been left to speculation and so-called ‘friends’ of the former driver to fill the void.


Schumacher's website has been relaunched since the skiing accident

Ever since a journalist dressed as a priest to try and gain access to Schumacher’s hospital room in the days immediately after the accident in the Alpine resort of Meribel, his family, and particularly his wife, have guarded their privacy fiercely. Schumacher’s son Mick has also been kept from the press on his debut season racing cars in Formula Four this year.

All this means that – officially – very little specific detail is actually known about Schumacher’s condition. The updates from Kehm have simply said he is out of a coma and continuing the long progress of rehabilitation. To where that might eventually lead is unknown, but the mood music does not suggest Schumacher is on the path to a full recovery.

The speculation is that Schumacher is able to recognise his family, but not a great deal more. Philippe Streiff, a former F1 driver who was himself paralysed in a testing accident in 1989, said last year Schumacher “had yet to recover the power of speech” but was “starting to recognise those close to him”.



But Kehm swiftly rebuffed those comments as “factually wrong”. She added: “He is making progress appropriate to the severity of the situation. We need a long time. It's going to be a long time and a hard fight.”

It is a process that seemingly will take many years and even then the eventual outcome is not clear. As the relaunch of Schumacher’s website encouraged his legions of fans to do, the time has come not to stop hoping for good news – his former Mercedes team still carry the ‘#keepingfightingmichael’ message on their car - but to remember all the German’s astonishing achievements.

The record 91 race wins, the seven championships – two with Benetton in 1994 and 1995, and then five with Ferrari from 2000 to 2004 – and the countless drives which astonished F1 and will live long in the memory of many.

As Ecclestone said, this is the Schumacher everyone knows, the one who divided opinion at times but won plaudits as a record-breaking machine. The Schumacher of the last 18 months, even a year on from no longer being in a coma, remains largely a mystery, as is his family’s right. The wait for good news goes on.

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Michael Schumacher German race–car driver

Michael Schumacher, byname Schumi (born January 3, 1969, Hürth-Hermülhein, West Germany [now in Germany]) German race-car driver who set records for the most Formula One (F1) Grand Prix race victories and F1 series championships.

As a youth, Schumacher became interested in go-kart racing, an enthusiasm that was supported by his father’s management of a go-kart track. In 1984 and 1985 he won the German junior karting championship, and in 1987 he captured the German and European karting titles. The next year, at age 19, he left karting and became a driver of Formula Three (F3) cars, vehicles that were less powerful than the F1 racers. Two years later, in 1990, he won the German F3 championship.


In 1991 Schumacher moved up to F1 competition as a driver for the Jordan team. He switched to Benetton the following year and won the drivers’ world championship for that team in 1994 and 1995. Before the 1996 season he moved to the Ferrari team and finished third in the championship standings. After suffering a broken leg in a crash in 1999, Schumacher rebounded to win a third championship the following year, which was Ferrari’s first drivers’ title since 1979. His 2000 win was the first in a string of five consecutive world championships (2000–04), and his grand total of seven F1 titles broke Juan Manuel Fangio’s record of five that had stood for nearly 50 years. In 2005 and 2006 he finished in third and second place in the F1 standings, respectively.

Schumacher retired at the end of the 2006 campaign to serve as a test driver and adviser for Ferrari. At the time of his retirement, he had 91 F1 Grand Prix race victories, which shattered the previous record of 51, held by French driver Alain Prost. In December 2009 Schumacher announced that he would return to F1 for the 2010 season as a driver for the Mercedes team. He spent three seasons with Mercedes, but he never won a race and never finished higher than eighth in the overall F1 standings during his comeback, and he retired again in 2012.

While Schumacher experienced unprecedented success on the track, he was also—through a combination of winner’s purses and endorsements—one of the best-paid athletes in the history of sport. His annual income was estimated at $100 million at the peak of his career. Schumacher was also known for his charitable efforts. He was named special ambassador for UNESCO in 2002 and made headlines for his $10 million donation to the relief effort for the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.

In December 2013 Schumacher fell while skiing in France and hit his head on a rock. Despite his wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, he sustained a significant brain injury and was placed in a medically induced coma until the following June.

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