“I have news and unfortunately it is not good,” Di Montezemolo told reporters on Thursday, refusing to elaborate in any way. “Life is strange. He was a fantastic driver and only had one accident with Ferrari in 1999 [Schumacher broke his leg in an accident during the British Grand Prix].”
Throughout this saga there have been precious few details on Schumacher’s condition. Some, including the former driver Philippe Streiff, have claimed to provide an insight but have been rebuked by Schumacher’s family and management.
Schumacher has been at his home since September 2014 Photo: AFP
Very few people are known to have visited the former Ferrari and Mercedes driver, who won five straight championships from 2000 to 2004.
Jean Todt, Schumacher’s team principal at Ferrari and now the FIA President, visits regularly and the last time he was asked about the German’s health he simply said he was “still fighting” to improve.
Ross Brawn, the Ferrari technical director during those dominant years, and the boss at Mercedes who brought Schumacher out of retirement, has been similarly tight-lipped.
The last Brawn said on the subject was: “We just keep praying every day that he’ll recover to a stage where… it’s slow, but there’s always hope.”