The secret world of Michael Schumacher
It is a bright winter’s day and next to nothing stirs outside the $92 million mansion in which Michael Schumacher is hidden from the world.
December 29 will mark five years since the most successful Formula One driver in history, who will turn 50 five days later, fell and hit his head while skiing in Meribel, in the French Alps.
But Schumacher’s wife Corinna, whom he married in 1995, has insisted on secrecy over his condition, a request that has been faithfully observed by all around them. Friends don’t talk. If they do, they are no longer friends.
A few dog-walkers roam the quiet wooded paths outside the Schumacher house on the banks of Lake Geneva. Michael’s father Rolf, the former bricklayer who ran gokarts at their local Kerpen track close to Cologne to support his boy’s career, is one of them.
You can just hear golf balls pinging at the club next door, but none of the locals in Gland — a town of 13,000 between Geneva and Lausanne — knows the latest medical situation of the superstar who lives among them.
But Rolf, who visits Switzerland regularly from his home in Bonn, confirms that Michael is inside, scotching rumours the world’s first billionaire sportsman has been transferred to a $55m holiday home Corinna bought in Majorca.
Since the accident on a clear, sunny morning in Meribel at an “offpiste junction”, much has transpired in Formula One. Lewis Hamilton has overtaken Schumacher’s pole record, 83 to 68. But the former Benetton, Ferrari and Mercedes great remains ahead on race wins (91 to 73) and world championships (seven to five).
Max Verstappen, who holidayed with the Schumachers as a boy, owing to his father Jos and Michael being contemporaries and friends, has emerged as the next potential star of the track, even if his aggressive driving has courted controversy as Michael’s ruthlessness once caused him to.
Most poignantly, Michael’s own son Mick, who was at his father’s side aged 14 when he hit that rock and suffered a brain haemorrhage, is the F3 champion and has signed to race for Prema in Formula Two, F1’s feeder series, next season. His future is promising, with seats at Mercedes or Ferrari a possibility one day.
Mick, who is said to be as private as his father, never delivers medical bulletins to outsiders, but last month he told Germany’s RTL channel of his relationship with Michael before the accident.
“My dad asked if I wanted to do racing professionally or whether we should just do it for fun, as a hobby. I, of course, said I wanted to do it professionally.
“I always want to compare myself to the best, and my father is the best. He’s also my idol. I’m pleased if I can compare myself to him. Many world champions compare themselves to my father.
“Even on days when the karting track was closed, we’d go there and we were allowed to do some laps. That was always the best time.”
But, in contrast to his son’s fastevolving career, Schumacher’s progress has, at best, been slow.
However, the Daily Mail understands he is not bed-ridden. Nor is he existing on tubes.
Yet it is believed he is receiving extensive nursing and therapy care, which has been estimated to cost more than $92,000 a week.
He is, it can be revealed, living with his close family in the main body of his house rather than in an outbuilding that some reports suggested had been constructed in response to his injuries as a special medical facility, a sort of hospital at home.
In fact, the building work began before the accident occurred and the new cottage was always intended as a base for his widower father when he stayed.
Apart from one comment in 2016 from Schumacher’s German lawyer, Felix Damm, confirming to a Hamburg court that the champion driver could “not walk”, further genuine updates have been hard to come by.
One leak was thwarted, with tragic consequences, in 2014.
It came after Schumacher was transported from the University of Grenoble Hospital, where he had two life-saving operations and remained for five months before coming out of his induced coma, to the University Hospital in Lausanne.
Some of his medical records were stolen and offered to media outlets for $74,000. The suspected thief, who worked for Rega, the air rescue company that moved Schumacher, was arrested, only to be found hanged in his cell while awaiting interview.
The following year, a photograph taken at his home and smuggled out by a “friend” was being hawked around for $1.8m, in what German prosecutors described as a “violation of his personal range of life” and a breach of privacy. The image never surfaced.
But we were recently given a glimpse inside Schumacher’s life, through the words of an archbishop who is a confidant to two popes.
Dr Georg Ganswein, Prefect of the Pontifical Household of Pope Francis and secretary of the retired Pope, Benedict XVI, was asked by Schumacher’s friend and former Ferrari team principal, now FIA president, Jean Todt, if he would visit Schumacher at home. He did so in 2016.
Speaking in the last few weeks to German newspaper Bild, Ganswein revealed: “I first talked to Corinna Schumacher and her mother. Then a therapist brought Michael Schumacher into the living room. I introduced myself and told him that I’m a secret fan, that I often watched his races, and that I was fascinated by how someone can steer such a machine through any weather at such high speed.
“I greeted Michael and held his hands. They were warm. Some things words cannot transport, but a touch can. Holding the hand of a sick person is something deeply Christian that provides consolation and closeness. That was important to me.”
Todt is a regular visitor, too, but is careful never to disclose Michael’s condition.
Another of Schumacher’s old Ferrari teammates, Rubens Barrichello, wanted to pay a visit, but was told: “It would not do him or me any good.” He said: “So I have no news, but we must respect the wishes of the family.”
But these insights are rare. Those close to Michael know precisely why Corinna, as is her right, asked for his confidentiality to be meticulously observed by friends.
As Schumacher’s spokesman Kehm says: “Michael always drew a clear distinction between his professional and personal lives, even during the most successful times of his career, and the family wants to honour that distinction now.”
Moreover, pre-accident Schumacher possessed a sense of his own sporting prowess, of his athleticism, which he worked more professionally in the gym to cultivate than any racer before. He was a proud man, and nobody close to him now wishes his self-image, and that shared by his devoted fans, to be shattered by unpalatable updates.
So what next? German magazine
Bravo have reported that medics are preparing in the utmost secrecy for Schumacher’s transfer to a clinic in Dallas, Texas, specialising in the treatment of brain injuries.
Mark Weeks, the director, told the magazine cryptically: “We have a lot of experience with patients who are suffering this kind of trauma. There is probably no clinic in Europe that treats as many cases as we do.”
The Schumacher family will not comment on the speculation.
But before any possible move there comes Michael’s 50th birthday on January 3. Bar a change of tack, or a happy transformation in his health, he will not be seen on the landmark day except by his closest friends and family.
Schumacher, though, never craved sympathy.
As he said in 2007: “I’ve always believed that you should never ever give up, and you should always keep fighting even when there’s only the slightest chance.”
That sentiment gave rise to the “Keep Fighting Initiative”, set up by spokeswoman Kehm and intended to “spread the positive energy that supporters of Michael have expressed to him over the years”, through good deeds, cultural and educational. Indeed, trackside fans across the world still wave banners offering their support for the stricken Schumacher, their hopes undimmed.
Plans will soon be revealed for public recognition of his half-century. But, before those ideas are made known, Kehm expressed this one heartfelt wish: “The best present for Michael and the family as he approaches his 50th birthday is for people to remember him as the best racer and record-breaker that he is.”
I greeted Michael and held his hands. They were warm. Some things words cannot transport, but a touch can. That was important to me.
Dr Georg Ganswein, Prefect of the Pontifical Household of Pope Francis