Michael Schumacher’s F1 friend says former World Champion is ‘a case without hope’ in tragic health update

Michael Schumacher’s ongoing health issues are “a case without hope” according to a close friend of the driver. Schumacher, 54, has been out of the public spotlight for almost a decade after a horrific skiing accident in the French Alps.

Schumacher retired from Formula 1 in 2012 after winning seven World Championship titles and securing himself as one of the greatest drivers of all time. Just a year later his life was changed forever after an accident in December 2013, where Schumacher fell and hit his head on a rock, which resulted in life-threatening injuries.

The driver survived the accident but was placed into a medically induced coma for several weeks and spent months in hospital before returning to his home in Lake Geneva. Schumacher has remained at the home ever since and is taken care of by his wife Corinna and a team of medical professionals.

There have been little updates on the driver since the accident with his wife maintaining high protection of her husband’s privacy. Only close family and chosen friends have been able to visit the driver, with few details then being released to the wider world.

In 2021, Schumacher’s wife Corinna gave a small update into the driver’s condition during an interview for a Netflix documentary, where she said he’s “different, but here.”. The driver’s son Mick Schumacher has also been asked to share updates on his father but has refused to give much detail.

Roger Benoit, an prominent F1 journalist over the last several decades, was known for his relationship with the family. The writer was regularly seen smoking with Schumacher after the races, with the pair reportedly having a close friendship.

In a recent interview with Blick, the journalist was asked about Schumacher’s condition and recovery and whether he could give any updates. Benoit told the site: “No. There is only one answer to this question and that is simply what his son Mick gave in one of his rare interviews in 2022, ‘I would give anything to talk to dad.’

“This sentence says everything about how his father has been doing for over 3500 days. A case without hope.” Benoit made reference to Mick Schumacher’s interview during the Netflix documentary Drive To Survive, where the current Mercedes reserve driver said: “I think dad and me, we would understand each other in a different way. Simply because we speak a similar language - the language of motorsport.”

Benoit also revealed that there was a period where he didn’t talk to the driver after differences in opinion, but was grateful to have patched things up ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix in 2011.

Benoit said: “We can both be stubborn. There were some things that didn’t suit me and that’s what I wrote. I also looked critically at his Mercedes comeback in 2010. The results proved me right, he only finished on the podium once in three years and was then replaced by Lewis Hamilton.

It was a sad and tragic end for such a superstar. Suzuka, 2011… I saw Mr Schumacher coming. He kept getting closer and closer. Then he walked past me. But after two meters he stopped, came back and hit my knee with his hand and said ‘Let’s forget everything that once was. We’ll start from the beginning.’

“I took another drag from my cigar and then said ‘Okay’. We’ve talked to each other again since then.”