Today is 10 years since Michael Schumacher’s life-changing skiing accident
Every year the Formula 1 community pauses to reflect on arguably its greatest-ever driver, who sustained life-changing injuries in the incident a decade ago.
What happened to Michael Schumacher?
A year after he retired from F1, following a three-year stint at Mercedes, Schumacher was skiing in Meribel, in the French Alps.
He fell and suffered a major head injury, despite wearing a helmet.
Schumacher was hospitalised, operated on, and placed in a medically induced coma.
By the following summer, it was confirmed that he was no longer in a coma, and he returned to his family home, but updates on his conditions have been kept to a minimum.
Where is Michael Schumacher now?
The F1 legend remains at his family home in Switzerland. He has not been seen publicly since his accident a decade ago.
His wife Corinna spoke about him in a 2021 Netflix special: "Of course, I miss Michael every day. But it's not just me who misses him: the children, the family, his father, everyone around him.
"Everybody misses Michael, but Michael is here. [It's] different, but he's here, and that gives us strength, I find."
Jean Todt, the former Ferrari boss who remains a close friend of the Schumacher family, is one of few people allowed to visit him.
"I can understand why his family and friends are protecting him because we should leave him in peace,” Todt has said.
"Michael is fighting, he is fighting, and we can only hope that he will improve.”
Felix Damm, Schumacher’s lawyer, recently explained why there was no final report published about his health after the accident.
“It was always about protecting private things,” Damm said.
“We considered whether a final report about Michael’s health could be the right way to do this.
“But that wouldn’t have been the end of it and there would have had to be constantly updated ‘water level reports’ and it would not have been up to the family when the media interest in the story stopped.
“They [the media] could pick up on such a report again and again and as ‘and what does it look like now?’ one, two, three months or years after the message,” he added. “If we then wanted to take action against this reporting, we would have to deal with the argument of voluntary self-disclosure.
“If it is not the person concerned himself but friends or acquaintances who disclose private information, it is not a case of ‘voluntary self-disclosure’ of privacy.
“Therefore, the data subject can defend himself against disclosure of private circumstances even if the information comes from an acquaintance.”
His son Mick Schumacher spent two years in F1 driving for Haas, and is currently Mercedes’ third driver.
On January 3rd, 2023, Schumacher turned 54 years old.
