Ten years after a serious accident
Norbert Haug: Michael Schumacher was not a “risk skier”
December 24, 2023, 10:45 a.m
A decade ago, Michael Schumacher had a serious accident while skiing. Norbert Haug is Head of Mercedes Motorsport when the Formula 1 icon makes his sensational comeback with the Silver Arrows. On the day of the skiing accident, Haug was also out in the snow – and now remembers the accident.
When the severity of Michael Schumacher’s injuries after his skiing accident ten years ago became known, Norbert Haug was also “shocked. I knew from ski trips together that Michael was anything but a risky skier, as one might generally assume of a racing driver would,” said the now 71-year-old of the German Press Agency.
Haug was Mercedes’ head of motorsport at the time when Michael Schumacher made a sensational return to Formula 1 for the 2010 season. The seven-time champion drove for the Silver Arrows for three years, but he was unable to achieve another victory after 91 in 1991 at the end of 2006. What is undisputed, however, is Schumacher’s development work for Mercedes, which shortly afterwards marked an unprecedented era of success with Schumacher’s successor Lewis Hamilton.
“Michael was the most famous German citizen at the time”
A good year after Michael Schumacher’s last Formula 1 race on November 25, 2012, the Rhineland native fell while skiing in the French Alps. Haug also remembers December 29, 2013 well. He was skiing in Austria with friends and saw a ticker tape with the accident report on the television when they came back from skiing.
“Michael was perhaps the best-known German citizen at the time and my first thought was that this enormous level of popularity was the reason for the prominent report and not the severity of the accident,” said Haug.
But by the day after the uninfluenced accident, in which Schumacher had suffered a severe traumatic brain injury, it was clear how badly the father of two had been hit. Schumacher fought for his life for days in the university hospital in Grenoble. It is not known how he is doing ten years later. The family is protecting the privacy of the former racing driver, who turns 55 on January 3rd.