Michael Schumacher’s former team-mate has hailed the Formula One legend after he signed a special helmet to be auctioned off for charity.
Mail Sport revealed earlier this month that Schumacher, who has not been seen in public since he suffered serious brain damage in a skiing accident in December 2013, signed the helmet with the help of his wife Corinna.
Corinna, who nurses Schumacher with a retinue of medical staff at their home on the shores of Lake Geneva, helped him to write his initials ‘MS’ on the helmet.
Schumacher joined every living world champion in contributing his signature to the helmet, which will be sold to raise funds for Sir Jackie Stewart’s Race Against Dementia charity.
In total, 20 world champions have written their signatures on the helmet.
Johnny Herbert, Schumacher’s teammate at Benetton in 1994 and 1995, said his signature was an ’emotional’ moment.
Formula One legend Michael Schumacher signed a helmet with the help of his wife Corinna, left
He signed MS on a white helmet with Royal Stewart Tartan, as worn by Stewart in his career
Schumacher’s former team-mate Johnny Herbert said the signature was ’emotional’
Herbert expressed his hope that Schumacher’s contribution was a sign that the 56-year-old is ‘on the mend’.
‘It’s wonderful news that Michael Schumacher signed Jackie Stewart’s helmet,’ Herbert told FastSlots.
‘It was a wonderful moment.
‘We haven’t seen something emotional like this in years, and hopefully, it’s a sign.
‘Hopefully, Michael is on the mend. It’s been a long, horrible journey for the family, and maybe we’ll hopefully see him in the F1 paddock soon.
‘Michael Schumacher making an appearance at an F1 race weekend would be one of those special moments from one of the greatest drivers we have ever seen.
‘It would be so welcomed, not just from everyone in the paddock, but everyone around the world. Considering the awful situation he found himself in, and to battle back against it, it would be amazing.
‘I hope we continue to hear this positive news more often.’
Herbert, right, had been Schumacher’s team-mate at Benetton in the 1994 and 1995 seasons
Jackie Stewart wore the signed helmet on an exhibition lap at the Bahrain Grand Prix
The helmet, featuring 20 world champions’ signatures, will be sold to raise money for Stewart’s Race Against Dementia charity
Herbert, who finished fourth in the World Championship in 1995 and later became an FIA steward, made the comments after the helmet was revealed earlier this month.
The white helmet with Royal Stewart Tartan – as worn by Stewart in a career in the Sixties and Seventies that yielded three world titles – was revealed at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Stewart, 85, wore the helmet as he drover his 1973 championship-winning Tyrrell on an exhibition lap prior to the race.
Speaking to Mail Sport, Stewart said: ‘It is wonderful that Michael could sign the helmet in this worthy cause – a disease for which there is no cure. His wife helped him, and it completed the set of every single champion still with us.’
Race Against Dementia was set up by Stewart after his wife of 53 years, Lady Helen, started to suffer dementia.
He told the BBC heartbreakingly last week that were moments when she no longer recognised him. ‘Where’s Jackie?’ she asked him as she got up for dinner. ‘That was the first time it has happened. She is in a new world.’
As for Schumacher, he was placed in a medically induced coma after his accident in Meribel in the French Alps – a few months before Lady Stewart’s diagnosis.
Race Against Dementia is funding a blood test trial developed by Cambridge University. It is hoped it will detect signs of frontotemporal dementia decades before it develops.
