Families of Schumacher, Bianchi hang on to hope
Dark cloud of driver tragedies hangs over Canadian Grand Prix
The headline appeared over a column in this space one year ago: A Thought and a Prayer for Michael Schumacher. It urged readers to spare a moment for the stricken racing great, and it expressed hope that he might recover soon, against the odds.
Sadly, 12 months on, as Formula One prepares for another Canadian Grand Prix, there is no happy news to report on the medical front.
Sadder still, that applies not only to Schumacher but to a second F1 driver who was left fighting for his life after suffering a head injury. Jules Bianchi remains unconscious eight months after his horrific crash at the Japanese Grand Prix, with grim prospects for recovery.
And as if to add to the gloom, we are reminded of the tragic death of F1 test driver Maria De Villota, whose 2012 crash at the wheel of her race car was the target of an investigation that made headlines in recent days. Dark times. In the case of Schumacher, remarkably little official information about his condition has emerged since his fateful skiing accident in the French Alps almost 18 months ago
We know that he spent the first six months in an induced coma before doctors began what was described as “the waking up process,” after which he was transferred to his Swiss home to begin the next phase of his rehabilitation.
Since then, his longtime manager Sabine Kehm has issued a handful of updates, all relaying more or less the same message: Schumacher is slowly improving but faces a long and difficult road, and the family expresses its thanks to wellwishers and remains hopeful for a recovery.
With that, we are left to ponder unconfirmed news reports that the seven-time F1 champion has been rendered immobile and unable to speak at age 46, and requires round-the-clock care at a clinic set up at his home at astronomi- cal costs. The property, we’re told, is surrounded by white tents so he can’t be photographed in his wheelchair.
“I think you know we are not giving updates upon request,” Kehm told me in an email last month, and instead directed me to the family’s latest message posted on Schumacher’s official website. It reads:
“Still we receive wishes for Michael to get well soon every day, and still we are stunned by the sheer amount of sympathies. We can only thank you for facing this fight together with him and us. We remain confident and hope the best for Michael. Your strength is helping us to keep supporting him.”
Whatever their hopes, there are suggestions the family is prepared to accept the worst and move on. Reports say Schumacher’s wife Corinna has taken control of her husband’s business empire — put at $1 billion — and begun to sell off no-longer-needed assets, including a jet and holiday home.
Their children are beginning to make their way, too. Son Mick, 16, is a race car driver in his own right and in April scored his first win in German Formula Four. Daughter Gina Marie, 17, shares her mother’s passion for the stables and recently was photographed competing in a horse show in a Bavarian town.
There are also obvious efforts to uphold the Schumacher brand. His website has undergone a slick revamp to better feature the racing legend, family man and product spokesperson. A newly issued Audemars Piguet watch, described as having been “imagined” by Schumacher before his skiing accident, sells for $229,500, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The urge to protect his privacy and control the message is understandable, given Schumacher’s stature as the most decorated driver in F1 history. No one should question the family’s decision on how to deal with the tragedy.
Equally valid, though, is the wish to be more forthcoming, to share your pain and seek solace in a more public way, and this is what we’ve seen from Bianchi’s family.
The Frenchman suffered head injuries when he lost control of his Marussia in wet conditions at last October’s Japanese Grand Prix and slammed into a crane that was removing a stranded Sauber that had also run off the track. Like Schumacher, the 25-year-old is no longer in an induced coma, but he has not regained consciousness.
“The first thing is Jules is alive — that’s the most important thing to us,” Bianchi’s father Philippe told the French network Canal+ during the Monaco Grand Prix two weeks ago. “He’s fighting with the weapons he has, but in neurological terms I’m not sure he is able to do much now.
“Seeing him fighting gives a lot of hope to his loved ones, and it’s important to us. While there is life, there is hope, even though after a while you are hoping for a miracle. Every day is difficult.
“The situation is stagnant. Jules’ neurological progress is not what we would like it to be. When we get up every morning we think of Jules’ life. We think also of his death.”
In an eerie coincidence, De Villota also was at the wheel of a Marussia when she crashed into a support truck during testing duties at Duxford Airfield in England in July 2012. She survived the crash but suffered head and facial injuries, and lost her right eye.
On Oct. 11, 2013, the Spaniard was found dead in her hotel room in Seville, where she was to give a speech and launch her autobiography, which carries the cruelly ironic title Life Is a Gift..She was 33.
An autopsy determined De Villota had suffered a cardiac arrest. The family issued a statement saying they were told by a forensic doctor her death was directly linked to the injuries she suffered in her accident 15 months before.
Last month, the Health and Safety Executive — Britain’s independent watchdog for workplace safety — said it had completed its investigation into the crash and would take no action against Marussia, which has since been rebranded as the Manor team.
De Villota’s family said it would analyze the HSE report “to evaluate the next legal steps to claim corresponding civil compensation from those responsible, in order — as Maria herself always wanted — to ensure that accidents of this type never happen again.”