That Sunday, December 29, 2013, time stopped for Michael Schumacher. He stopped his watch at 11 in the morning in the winter resort of Méribel, in the French Alps, when he suffered a skiing accident. The serious injuries left the Kaiser prostrate on a bed. A decade has now passed since the fateful fall; ten years of hermetic silence regarding the state of health of the greatest champion in the history of Formula 1.
The former German driver, who had retired from competition for just over a year (his last race was in November 2012, in Brazil), was skiing off-piste and hit his head on a rock. According to a documentary broadcast by the French network RMC Story, the concussion was aggravated by a camera he was wearing in his helmet. The medical report was devastating: “Head trauma, intracranial hematomas and diffuse cerebral edema.”
In this decade of silence, very few details have emerged about the recovery process and the real state of the seven-time F-1 world champion (1994-1995, 2000-2004), whose privacy has been jealously protected. by the family and its press service. The priority has been to shield his privacy at all costs. Neither in Switzerland, where he supposedly resides, nor in Germany, his country, have the investigations prospered. Not an image, nor a leak, nor a medical report of the state of health have been made public in these ten years. Under the permanent threat of lawsuits, the German press, like the Swiss press, has barely reported on Schumacher.
“Officially, Michael resides in Switzerland; where he is is not known... He supposedly lives in his mansion in Gland [next to Lake Leman, in the Nyon district], but no one has seen him, nor his family. He never sees anyone, never knows anything. He is like a Swiss ghost resident…”, Swiss journalist Maïque Pérez, from Blue TV, who had covered F-1 information for six seasons, until 2013, tells La Vanguardia. “Schumi is a mystery”, summarizes the journalist.
The secrecy in everything that refers to Schumacher has been absolute. “Partly it is understood because in Switzerland there is a lot of respect for the private lives of citizens; That's why he chose this country to live when he was an active pilot. Michael could afford to play soccer on a village team and no one bothered him, he went for a walk to the nearest city, he was seen in the markets... This is what famous people who move their residence to Switzerland are looking for, maintaining privacy that they do not find in Spain, in Italy or in England.”
It also follows that in the Swiss country interest in the ins and outs of the Schumachers is minimal. “People in Switzerland are not cheap, they are not interested in the loves, intrigues and misfortunes of the famous,” says Pérez.
Despite this supposed popular indifference, Michael's privacy protection measures have been impenetrable. “It is impressive to what extent they have been able to protect that privacy, they have managed to deter the paparazzi and prevent leaks from the domestic service…” says the Swiss journalist.
Two women take care of the Germanic's privacy: his wife, Corinna, and his faithful former press agent Sabine Kehm, family spokesperson. Both have applied a scrupulous protocol to protect the former pilot from curious glances and avoid mistakes by the few people who have access to him, only three, according to what Flavio Briatore's ex-wife, Elisabetta Gregoraci, said in 2020.
Any prevention is not enough. For example, the ambulance drivers and medical staff who transferred Schumacher from the Moutiers hospital to the Grenoble hospital had their cell phones confiscated so that they could not take photographs. Or in the center of Grenoble, where the Kaiser was admitted for half a year (until June 2014), private security guarded the intensive care room where he remained admitted.
What has been known about Schumacher in these ten years? From family sources, almost nothing. His son Mick, who was an F-1 driver for two discrete seasons (2021-2022, with Haas), was vetoed from questions about his father. And the daughter, Gina-Maria, is dedicated to horse riding, cowboy dressage, riding between the US and Europe. So the only information circulating about the former pilot refers to publications in the German press, according to which Michael receives daily care from a professional team of doctors and therapists in his Swiss mansion. Although some media claimed that he moved to his Villa Yasmin estate in Andratx (Mallorca), Corinna hastily denied it.
Like almost everything. For each publication, a denial. If not, a lawsuit for interference with honor. Like the one that fell to the German magazine Bunte for defamation, for publishing in December 2015 that Schumacher “could walk a little with the help of his therapists.”
The complaint, at least, meant the unblocking of information, since at the trial, in 2016, the Schumacher family's lawyer, Felix Damm, had to testify, who, due to legal imperative, shed some light by denying the information. “Michael can't walk,” he said, corroborating what everyone intuited, and some had slipped: that Schumi was immobile, in a vegetative state. “The information that Mr. Schumacher could walk” is irresponsible, because given the seriousness of the injuries, his privacy is very important. Unfortunately they also gave false hope to many people involved,” added Sabine Kehm. The magazine had to compensate the family with 50,000 euros for damages.
Although those who have spoken the most were some of the restricted visits to Schumacher. Like former Ferrari president Luca Di Montezemolo, who said: “It's terrible to see Michael in this situation.” His friend Jean Todt, former Ferrari boss, commented to L'Équipe on December 13 that “he is simply no longer the Michael he used to be. His life is different now... Unfortunately, fate struck him ten years ago. He is no longer the Michael we knew in F-1.” Or the aforementioned Elisabetta Gregoracci, who blurted out in the middle of the television program, in the Italian version of Big Brother, that Schumacher “does not speak, he only communicates with his eyes,” and that “only three people can visit him.” “And I know who they are,” concluded the former model, who revealed that the former pilot and his wife had moved to live in their mansion in Andratx, where “they have set up a hospital at home.”
On those same dates in 2020, an external opinion from a Zurich neurosurgeon, Erich Riederer, also emerged, whose testimony was included in the unpublished documentary Michael Schumacher, en quête de vérité (Michael Schumacher, in search of the truth), broadcast on RMC Story television. . According to the Swiss specialist, the French doctors who treated Schumacher at the Grenoble hospital on December 29, 2013 “took too long” to intervene. “Neurosurgeons always say 'time is ticking', that is, you have to act quickly. In my opinion, they took too long until the brain was relieved. If you let time pass, you destroy brain substances.”
Without being directly aware of the former driver's state of health, Riederer openly stated that Schumacher "is in a vegetative state, which means that he is awake, but does not respond", so he doubted that he would return to his old self. "Really I do not think so. He is breathing, his heart is beating, he may be able to sit up and take small steps with help, but no more. “I think that is the most for him,” explained the neurosurgeon in the French documentary.
These opinions were among the last few that referred to the seven-time champion, who will turn 55 on January 3. The Kaiser and his family continue their fight in silence, also in a race against oblivion, to avoid disappearing from the collective imagination and for his figure to be diluted in the amnesia of history, buried by the deeds and records of the new generations. In recent seasons, F-1 drivers wore the Keep fighting inscription, which also gives name to the foundation created by the Schumacher family to keep the former driver's memory alive and share his fighting spirit.
