Abu Dhabi: Nearly a year after suffering severe head injuries from a skiing accident which left him comatose for six months, seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher remains uppermost in the minds of the F1 fraternity.
Schumacher’s former teammate, Johnny Herbert, told Gulf News that he was “very sad” to hear of Schumacher’s plight — he is reportedly paralysed and confined to a wheelchair after hitting his head while in the French Alps on December 29, 2013.
“It just proves how fragile life is unfortunately,” said Herbert, who finished fourth in the F1 championship behind Benetton teammate and champion Schumacher in 1995.
“It’s very sad because his worst injury was when he broke his leg at [the 1999 British Grand Prix] at Silverstone. He dominated with seven world championships and left a great legacy when he left F1 and was carrying on with his life. It’s a long road ahead for him, like his family keep saying.”
Has Herbert contacted Schumacher’s family since the accident?
“No, I haven’t spoken to [his wife] Corinna for a long, long time and it’s not the right thing to do,” the Englishman replied. “We hope he can be in a situation where he can live a happy life.”
Herbert said Schumacher was as ruthless and relentlessly driven as his public perception portrayed him — someone who kept himself to himself and had few close friends.
“When he was racing, he was tough on the track and when he left [F1], he had a similar spirit,” the 50-year-old Sky Sports Television pundit said. “I got on fine with him when I was racing. Did I go out for dinner with him? No. Did we have a friendship after we stopped Formula One? No, not really.
“But we both didn’t go fishing for that. We were both different characters. He was just very focused on what he was doing.”
He added: “He didn’t have very many driver friends. I always heard [Dutch former F1 driver] Jos Verstappen was closest to him, but he had a very small group of people supporting him.”
