Michael Schumacher

Michael Schumacher (born 3 January 1969) is a retired German racing driver. Schumacher is a seven-time Formula One (F1) World Champion and is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time. He holds many of Formula One's driver records, including most championships, race victories, fastest laps, pole positions and most races won in a single season – 13 in 2004. In 2002, he became the only driver in Formula One history to finish in the top three in every race of a season and then also broke the record for most consecutive podium finishes. According to the official Formula One website, he is "statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever seen".

After beginning with karting, Schumacher won German drivers' championships inFormula König and Formula Three before joining Mercedes in the World Sportscar Championship. After one Mercedes-funded race for the Jordan Formula One team, Schumacher signed as a driver for the Benetton Formula One team in 1991. After winning consecutive championships with Benetton in 1994/5, Schumacher moved to Ferrari in 1996 and won another five consecutive drivers' titles with them from 2000 to 2004. Schumacher retired from Formula One driving in 2006 staying with Ferrari as an advisor. Schumacher agreed to return for Ferrari part-way through 2009, as cover for the badly injured Felipe Massa, but was prevented by a neck injury. Schumacher returned to Formula One on a permanent basis from 2010 with the Mercedes team before retiring for a second time at the conclusion of the 2012 season.

His career was not without controversy, including being twice involved in collisions in the final race of a season that determined the outcome of the world championship, withDamon Hill in 1994 in Adelaide, and with Jacques Villeneuve in 1997 in Jerez. Off the track Schumacher is an ambassador for UNESCO and a spokesman for driver safety. He has been involved in numerous humanitarian efforts throughout his life and donated tens of millions of dollars to charity. Schumacher and his younger brother, Ralf, are the only brothers to win races in Formula One, and they were the first brothers to finish 1st and 2nd in the same race, a feat they repeated in four subsequent races.

Schumacher suffered a serious head injury whilst skiing in the French Alps in December 2013. He was airlifted to a hospital and placed in a medically induced coma, having suffered a traumatic brain injury. As of January 2014, Schumacher remains in a coma, and remains in a critical condition, having undergone two surgeries to relieve pressure on his brain.

2013 skiing accident

On 29 December 2013, Schumacher was skiing with his 14-year-old son Mick on an unsecured area between two marked pistes on theDent de Burgin near Méribel in the French Alps. He fell and hit his head on a rock, sustaining a head injury despite wearing a ski helmet. He was attended by two ski patrollers and airlifted within fifteen minutes to the local hospital in Moûtiers and then to Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Grenoble, a regional hospital that specialises in the treatment of brain injuries. Der Spiegel reported that eyewitnesses had stated that Schumacher was not traveling fast at the time of his accident, “a maximum of 20 kilometres per hour.” This corroborated the statement of Schumacher’s spokesperson who stated that he could not have been traveling fast as he had just “helped a friend” who had fallen. When his helmet camera was examined, it was reported that he was travelling "at a completely normal speed for this type of terrain and for a good skier." Police investigations had also ruled out any faults with Schumacher's skiing equipment, or unclear signage on the slopes and boundaries.

On 30 December, it was announced that Schumacher was in critical condition and in a medically induced coma due to suffering atraumatic brain injury and had undergone urgent neurosurgery to relieve pressure on his brain after a scan showed he had sufferedcerebral contusion. On the following day, doctors said that Schumacher had undergone a second surgery and his condition had improved slightly, although he was still "not out of danger" and the condition remains critical. The doctors said they would need still more to time to give a prognosis. According to his physicians, Schumacher would most likely have died had he not been wearing a helmet.

On 1 January 2014, three days after his accident, it was reported that Schumacher's condition was "critical but stable", and that he had shown some signs of improvement.

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