FIA president and former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt says Michael Schumacher “is still fighting” to recover from his skiing accident in late 2013.
Schumacher suffered severe head injuries in a fall when skiing in the French Alps in December 2013, spending six months in a coma before finally returning home in July 2014 to continue his recovery. Since then, official updates from the seven-time world champion’s family and manager have been very limited, but Todt - who remains close to Schumacher having won five consecutive titles together at Ferrari - says he continues to fight.
"It was interesting last week after Lewis [Hamilton] was world champion for the third time,” Todt said. "You saw the figures. I was very proud of what Michael [achieved]. Sometimes you tend to forget what he did.
"Michael is a close friend, his family is very close to me, and I'm very close to them as well. I see Michael very often, and Michael is still fighting, and we must keep him fighting with the family.”
Following Hamilton’s championship victory it was put to both Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel they now hold the same combined amount of titles as Schumacher, and Vettel says his fellow German remains his hero.
“I think it’s because, the way I think of Michael is with massive respect for what he has achieved,” Vettel said. “He is my childhood hero. In many ways still my hero. Especially since the day I joined Ferrari – to know what he did with the team and what especially he did to be that successful makes me respect him even more.
“So, yeah, I don’t really want to go near… I’m very, very happy to be in the position that I am – and of course my target is to win the championship with Ferrari – but I haven’t put a number to it and I wouldn’t dare to think about equaling Michael.”
REPORT: Rosberg beats Hamilton to Mexican GP pole
AS IT HAPPENED: Mexican Grand Prix - Qualifying
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