For years, F1 fans have been desperate for details on Michael Schumacher’s condition, but it’s been clear why that won’t happen. Little is known about Michael Schumacher’s health. The release of a new documentary has provided several clues as to why his family is so desperate to keep his condition a secret. Wife Corinna has been central to protecting the F1 legend’s privacy — though it’s an approach that hasn’t always sat well with everyone. During his racing days, his manager, Willi Weber, for example, has previously said his former client’s fans deserve to be kept informed and pointed the finger at Corinna for denying him access to his friend.
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“I know that Michael has been hit hard, but unfortunately, I do not know what progress he makes,” Weber said. “I’d like to know how he’s doing and shake hands or stroke his face. “But unfortunately, this is rejected by Corinna. “She’s probably afraid that I’ll immediately see what’s going on and make the truth public.” Corinna opened up more than ever about her husband’s health battle in SCHUMACHER, the Netflix documentary set to be released on September 15, as she broke down in tears, revealing the 52-year-old is “different” after suffering a near-fatal brain injury from a skiing accident in the French alps in 2013.
But specifics about Schumacher’s condition and whether he will recover were kept under wraps. Multiple scenes in the documentary, which feature never-before-seen archival footage and interviews with those who knew Schumacher best, provide clues as to why Corinna and the family are determined to keep everything private. Corinna has said before she is following her soulmate’s wishes to save his health out of the spotlight, and the documentary opens a window into just what she means. ‘Private is private’, as he always said. It’s essential to me that he can continue to enjoy his private life as much as possible,” Corinna says. “Michael always protected us, and now we are protecting Michael.”
She adds that Schumacher enjoyed racing in its purest form but not everything else that became a global superstar. “What he didn’t like was the press, the people, all the hype around him,” she says. “That’s not what he wanted. He wanted to do the sport. “Michael is very suspicious. He always has been during the initial period. Until he thinks he knows someone or can trust them, then he opens up completely.” Schumacher’s former Ferrari boss and good friend Jean Todt, who is optimistic the seven-time world champion will one day recover, says in the documentary Schumacher “is an extremely reserved, shy person”.
“He was looking for a normal life, and he had a hard time understanding why he couldn’t have that normal life,” Todt says—observations like those show why Schumacher wouldn’t want his health condition to be made public. Ex-Australian F1 star Mark Webber says it was tough to become close with Schumacher and get to know him because there was always a “fence” between him and everyone else, except for his family. The Ferrari legend’s manager, Sabine Kehm, also provided an insight into his racing career that may explain why he doesn’t want anyone to know how he is doing.
“In an interview with Netflix to promote the documentary, Kehm expanded on why secrecy surrounds Schumacher’s health nearly eight years after his accident. It is essential to Michael that nobody in the team ever noticed when he was struggling, gritting his teeth, maybe even having doubts or feeling desperate,” Kehm says. “He was extremely good at hiding that.” A family has decided to deal with it as Michael dealt with all private topics. When racing, he was a public person, which was part of his job. But when he came home, he pulled up the drawbridge, as he called it because he needed this space for himself,” Kehm said.
“He was in the world championship fight for so long; this is so tiring, and so he needed his home and family life as a refuge. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had the energy for the fight. He sensed this relatively early and did it like that all those years. “This is why his family has been doing it like this all those years. And I think the film has found a good way to confront this topic despite this attitude.”
