A former F1 driver has spoken about the legendary Michael Schumacher, and why his wife remains tight-lipped about his condition.
Schumacher had one hell of a career on the race track. Considered to be one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time, the German earned 91-career victories and seven World Championships during his illustrious career, which saw him drive for both Ferrari and Mercedes.
However, Schumacher's life would be turned upside down in 2013 when, after retiring from F1 for the second time, he was involved in a devastating skiing accident in Meribel, a ski resort in France.
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While skiing off-piste, it's believed Schumacher hit his head on a rock, cracking his helmet and suffering a catastrophic injury which saw him spend many weeks in a medically-induced coma.
Ever since the accident over a decade ago, Schumacher's family - including his wife Corinna and two children, Mick and Gina-Maria - have kept details about his recovery and health incredibly sparse, and have fought to protect his privacy.
The driving legend, now 56, hasn't been seen in public since his fateful accident, and a family lawyer previously said that a health report about Schumacher's condition was not made public in order to protect 'private matters'.
Now, a fellow former F1 driver has spoken out about Schumacher and why his wife doesn't speak about his condition.
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Retired German driver Christian Danner, who previously drove for Jaguar Racing and Arrows BMW, recently spoke with Spaceport Sweden and when discussing the current World Champion Max Verstappen and how he compares to the likes of Schumacher, he touched upon his own experiences with the former champ and a recent interaction with his family.
"Last year in Monza I spoke to Corinna, sometimes a little bit to Mick. I’ve known Corinna ever since she was Heinz-Harald Frentzen’s girlfriend, so it goes way back," he said.
"Whenever we see each other, we say hello and we have a coffee together. It’s the Formula 1 family... There is a bond between the Formula One people, even when they have retired. From the driver’s point of view, the bond is much better once the driver has retired."
Danner then clarified: "But Corinna and Mick don’t talk about the accident. It’s their way of handling the issue."
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The former racer also touched on how he found it to race against a champion like Schumacher, saying: "Well on the track, Schumacher was occasionally quite nasty. In his manoeuvres he was quite unfair.
"But to watch him drive a car was such a pleasure because he had such car control and such a specific driving style which was very hard.
"It was an incredibly intense driving style."
This comes just months after three men were convicted of trying to force the Schumacher family to hand over £12 million to prevent 900 personal photos, nearly 600 videos and medical records from being leaked online.
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Yilmaz Tozturkan, 53, who was considered the blackmail plot leader, was sentenced to three years in prison by the German court while his son, Daniel Lins, 30, was given a six-month suspended prison sentence.
Markus Fritsche, 53, who worked for the Schumachers as a security guard for 18 months before the skiing accident, received a two year suspended prison sentence.
Topics: Sport, Formula 1, Michael Schumacher
Emily Puckering