Michael Schumacher Update: ‘There’s Always Hope,’ Insists Former Ferrari Boss, Ross Brawn

Ross Brawn, Michael Schumacher’s former boss at Mercedes and with Ferrari, has provided an update on the Formula One driver’s current condition, as he battles to recover from his ski accident almost 20 months ago.

Ross Brawn has insisted that there is still “hope” that Schumacher will one day make a recovery, as he admitted that he is still in regular contact with Michael’s wife Corrina as well as the family.

According to the Express, Brawn revealed that he has visited Michael Schumacher on a number of occasions over the last few months, and while he confessed that the German motor sport icon’s progress has been “slow,” he still sees a number of positives.

Brawn explained, “I do keep in touch [with Schumacher’s family], but we try and keep a balance of going to see him against calling, and not being a pain. I’ve been to see him a few times; Corinna, his wife, calls me occasionally and keeps me update.”

Brawn then continued, “We just keep praying every day that he’ll recover to a stage where… it’s slow, but there’s always hope.”

Before Brawn’s comments, the most recent update on Michael Schumacher’s stricken condition came from his manager, Sabine Kahn. She said, “We are happy to say still he does improve and I say this always considering the severeness of the injury he had. But of course it will take a very long time for everybody involved to fight, and we are happy to take this fight.”

Michael Schumacher suffered his traumatic injury back on December 29, 2013, when he was skiing alongside his, at the time, 14-year-old son, Mick, in the French Alps.

Michael smashed his head on a rock at such a ferocity that it’s believed his helmet smashed, while physicians later confirmed that if he hadn’t been wearing that helmet Schumacher would have almost certainly died.

After immediately being taken to a hospital, Michael Schumacher was then put into a medically induced coma. Just over two months after being put into this coma, doctors revealed that he was stable.

Over the next few weeks, Schumacher began to show signs of consciousness, and he was gradually pulled out of the coma. Then, in June of 2014, he was taken to a rehabilitation ward, where he regained consciousness. In September he was brought back to his family home, where it was recently revealed that the Schumachers spend over $100,000 a week to care for him.

Over the last year there have been a variety of reports on Schumacher’s condition. In November 2014 it was alleged that he was “paralysed and in a wheelchair,” while it was also added that he couldn’t “speak and has memory problems.”

Last month, a year after Schumacher was taken out of his coma, Phillipe Streiff, who himself had been paralysed in a testing accident, explained, via the Telegraph, that he “had yet to recover the power of speech” and was “starting to recognise those close to him.” However Kehm quickly dismissed these comments as “factually wrong.”

Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher’s family have remained quiet over updates on the Formula One driver’s condition, with Mick Schumacher even avoiding the press during his debut season racing cars in Formula Four.

Schumacher is regarded to have been one of the greatest Formula One drivers in the sport’s history. The German holds the record for the number of Formula One world titles, having collected seven during his career. Two of these were with Benetton, while the remaining five were during his hugely successful spell with Ferrari. He also drove for Jordan and Mercedes at the beginning and end of his career, respectively.

[Image via Getty/Bryn Lennon]