Not much is known about the current status of Mr Schumacher’s health, as his family has kept tight-lipped and focus on the care he now needs instead. But this week the Prefect of the Pontifical House of the Holy See and personal secretary of Benedict XVI, Georg Gänswein has spoken to German magazine Bunte about “Schumi’s” condition. The German archbishop, who was previously a ski instructor, revealed he paid the record-breaking racing driver a visit.
He said: “I sat in front of him, I touched him with both hands, and I looked at him. His face, as we all know, is the typical face of Michael Schumacher; only that it has become a little more puffy.
“He feels that around him there are people who love him, who care about him and, thank God, keep the curious public away.
“A sick person needs discretion and understanding.”
His wife Corinna, 47, son Mick, 19, and daughter Gina-Maria, 21, have rarely spoken to the press.
Last year, Corinna said: “The decision to protect his privacy from the public has been taken in Michael’s interest.
“We have made it very clear that something serious has happened.”
What happened, when was skiing crash?
While skiing at the Meribel resort in the French Alps on December 29, 2013, Mr Schumacher suffered a severe head injury after he hit his head on a rock.
He was put into a medically induced coma and underwent two life-saving operations at Grenoble Hospital.
He was taken out from the coma in April 2014 and moved to a hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, before being brought home a few months later in September 2014.
There were no updates about his health until April 2015, when it was revealed Mr Schumacher was showing “moments of consciousness and awakening”.
Three months later, a statement was then released saying he was no longer in a coma.