DECEMBER 5, 2023

New analysis marks ten years since Schumacher fall

As the ten-year anniversary of Michael Schumacher's devastating ski accident approaches, almost little is known about the incident itself or the F1 legend's long-time health condition.

A new detailed analysis of the affair has emerged thanks to Norddeutscher Rundfunk, a German public broadcaster, in which author Jens Gideon defended the Schumacher family's right to stay silent.

Of course I'd like to know how Schumacher is doing, he said. "But I don't have a right to know.

And that's not what this investigation is about.

To research his project, Gideon spoke with Michael's brother Ralf, the former Ferrari and Mercedes driver's son Mick, and even Mama Rosella - Schumacher's favourite pasta chef in Fiorano.

As for the fateful skiing crash in an off-piste area in the French Alps, a Belgian journalist colleague of Gideon's is clear about where the now 54-year-old German went wrong.

You don't go in there on a day like that, he said of the area characterised by the types of rocks that Schumacher tripped on - and struck with his helmeted head.

The journalist says he has visited the scene many times on days where light snow only barely covered the rocks.

It was clear that there wasn't enough snow, he said.

A report in Kolner Express newspaper adds: "Schumacher knew the area like the back of his hand, as he had a chatel near the slopes.

Andre, the ski instructor who arrived after the first responders, asked around and Schumacher probably got his ski caught on a rock and hit his head on another.
(GMM)