Jean Todt and his response to Michael Schumacher’s health

The next 29th December will be at least 10 years from the day on which the life of Michael Schumacher and his entire family changed completely because of the ski accident suffered by the 7-time world champion at the resort Meribel, in the French Alps. Since then, his wife, Corinna Schumacherhas reiterated its demand that the state of health of Michael Schumacher and his recovery was kept private out of respect for the nicknamed ‘Kaiser’.

For this reason, little is known about the German in these almost 10 years and the little comes in the form of vague phrases from his family, especially those they released in the Michael Schumacher documentary published in 2021 on Netflix. Before that, the person who talked about Michael the most, even in dribs and drabs, was Jean Todtwho became the president of FIA and former head of Ferrari in the team’s golden era with Michael Schumacher as a great champion.

The French became more than his master. Also one of the best friends of the Schumacher family. but, Jean Todt He was one of the people who had the most access to Michael in recent years, something he was constantly asked about. This time, in an interview with ‘La Stampa’, It is shorter than usual.

“Michael is a friend, I consider him part of my family. I always go to see him and in the past we followed the F1 Grands Prix on television”, he declared. But when the interviewer asked him how Michael was doing, he didn’t want to say anything about it: “It is a private matter. All I can say is I adore Michael, I adore his family and it is right to respect their privacy. The relationship with him, at first just professional, then more trusting, until it became a good friendship. ”

Todt has spoken more openly about Schumacher on other occasions

Todt spoke more openly on other occasions. Always having the utmost respect for Michael, he assured in 2014 that “Michael has improved.” “In recent weeks and months, he has made progress relative to the severity of his injury,” Todt said in 2014. in L’Equipe. “But he still has a long, hard road ahead of him,” he continued.

“We can assume that Schumacher will be able to lead a relatively normal life in the short term. What we can say is that he will probably never drive an F1 car again,” he told ‘RTL’. in 2014.

And four years ago, in an interview with Radio MonteCarlo, Todt made sure that he watched the German GP on television with the German, as he had already acknowledged a year before they had watched the 2018 Brazilian GP.

“I’m always wary of ads like this, but it’s true. We watched the race with Michael Schumacher at his home in Switzerland. He does not give up and continues to fight,” he added, noting that “of course our friendship cannot be the same as before, mainly because there is no longer the same communication as before. “He continues to fight and his family fights in the same way,” said the head of the FIA ​​at the time, who in June 2019 referred to Michael again, almost as if he were the sole spokesman for the family.

“It’s a very private matter. Michael is very good around, he lives with his family, in his house, between Geneva and Lausanne. Continue the fight. That’s all I can say now. It is known that he had that terrible accident. He is fighting and will continue to do so. He has a team with him, his family, which is extraordinary. Everything else is private and it rightly remains so,” he stated on that occasion.

This time, however, Jean Todt was more succinct when discussing the state of Michael’s health.