Michael Schumacher turned 53 on Monday, just days after the eighth anniversary of the tragic skiing accident from which he has been recovering ever since
Mick Schumacher has paid tribute to his father in an emotional birthday message on social media.
Michael Schumacher turned 53 on Monday, just days after the eighth anniversary of the tragic skiing accident from which he has been recovering ever since.
The seven-time F1 world champion was skiing with Mick in the French Alps when he fell and hit his head on a rock, causing a traumatic brain injury which left him in an induced coma for six months, reports The Mirror.
The following autumn his loved ones were permitted to have him discharged from hospital and taken to the family home on the shores of Lake Geneva, where he has been recovering ever since.
Few details of his condition have ever been made public, with wife Corinna preferring to keep those details under wraps.
Jean Todt, the outgoing FIA boss and a close personal friend of the Schumacher family, has been able to provide limited updates of his condition at times.
He has recently said that the German is slowly improving and still enjoys watching the F1 action, but struggles to communicate with others.
And Corinna revealed in the Netflix documentary released last year that they both regularly take part in therapy sessions, and vowed to do all she can to “ensure he is comfortable, and to simply make him feel our family, our bond”.
Son Mick, who followed in his father’s footsteps by racing as a junior and making his way up to compete in F1, has also shared few personal details about his father.
But he used Schumacher Snr’s 53rd birthday as an opportunity to send a public message to his beloved father.https://get-latest.convrse.media/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishmirror.ie%2Fsport%2Fother-sport%2Fformula-one%2Fmichael-schumachers-son-mick-sends-25849879&cre=center&cip=13&view=web
“Happy birthday, dad,” he wrote alongside an image of himself as a toddler being carried by his father during his racing days.
“Days like these were important to my growing passion for motorsport, and still affects it to this day.
“I am grateful for all the experiences you have given me and I’m excited to be making new ones in the future.”
The younger Schumacher had to endure a difficult first season in F1 in 2021, after being given a wholly uncompetitive car by his cash-strapped Haas team.
He and fellow rookie team-mate Nikita Mazepin failed to score a single point between them over the course of the season, though the German has been praised for what he was able to do with such a poor car.
F1 fans will be hoping Schumacher will be able to race in a more competitive vehicle in 2022, so they can see if he has inherited some of those racing skills from his father.
