Michael Schumacher on the move to Mallorca?

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Reports in the European press this week suggest that seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher is to move from his mansion at Lake Geneva to a new summer home in Mallorca.

Schumacher continues to recover from head injuries sustained in a skiing accident in the French Alps December 2013. He has not been seen in public since then, and reports about his current condition are carefully guarded by his family.

The Schumacher family has spent millions on medical facilities at his home, and on rehabilitation treatment to help him overcome his devastating injuries. It has been estimated that the cost of his round-the-clock care at the hands of a 15-strong team is around £115,000 per week.

But now it appears that a change of climate is what the doctors have prescribed for the 49-year-old, with the mayoress of the Mallorcan town of Andratx Katia Rouarch telling Swiss magazine L'Illustre that the Schumachers would move to the island in the near future.

"I can officially confirm Michael Schumacher is going to move in to our municipality and that everything is being prepared to welcome him," the magazine quotes Rouarch as saying.

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However the magazine was not able to independently confirm the reports, or establish for certain exactly when the Schumachers would arrive on Majorca - or how long they would stay for.

And family spokeswoman Sabine Kehm told news agency AFP in an email that "The Schumacher family does not plan to move to Mallorca."

German tabloid Bild previously reported that that the Schumachers had bought a £27 million home on the Mediterranean island which had been formerly owned by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.

However it indicated that the new property was to enable Schumacher's wife Corinna to get away for breaks and to entertain friends. The couple regularly holidayed in Mallorca before Michael's accident, and previously owned a modest holiday villa on the island.

According to reports in the Daily Mail, the 15,000 square metre property new features two swimming pools, a large garden, a helipad and a guest villa on the grounds. It is located on the upmarket estate of Las Brisas around the Puig de Marmacen mountain in the south-west region of the island

"The place, surrounded by solid walls, has many advantages: it is located on a promontory, a part of which becomes a small precipice, which makes the property inaccessible to prying eyes," L'Illustre added.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.