Michael Schumacher Health Condition Update: Former Rivals Pay Tribute, Including Mika Hakkinen And Sebastian 'Little Schumi' Vettel

Aug 25, 2015 12:40 PM EDT

Michael Schumacher really stunned the world when he was a huge seven-time F1 racer winner, but shortly after his retirement, a skiing accident brought him down. Michael Schumacher has the loyal support of friends, family, fellow racers, as well as a loyal fanbase on his website, and here is the latest Michael Schumacher Health Condition Update.

A recent interview with NBC Sports revealed how much former rival and yet friend of Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen, really respected the injured athlete.  Mika discussed how the Belgian Grand Prix of 2000 saying: "I massively enjoyed my Formula 1 career, and one of its highlights was my ongoing rivalry with Michael. I respected him, and I think he respected me. We raced each other hard, but for the most part we also raced each other fairly. He was a terrifically combative competitor, but you could say that about all the great champions. You do not win seven world championships by being soft-hearted, and Michael was never that; but he was a superb driver, one of the best in the history of the sport in fact."

The Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is the 24th anniversary of Michael Schumacher's F1 debut.  There are a lot of people who are getting very nostalgic when it comes to celebrating the driver's anniversary. 

Another quote about Michael Schumacher comes from Sebastian Vettel, who is often referred as "Baby Schumi".  He recently shared with The New York Times that he feels glad to be compared to Schumacher.  He also added:  "I think the fact that we are obviously German, both of us, and he joined Ferrari at a difficult time and now I join Ferrari at maybe not the easiest time, you could say there are some similarities, but it is a completely different time. So the target is not really to copy him or do what he did, it is looking forward and trying to do better than Ferrari has done in recent times."

As far as the driver's health is concerned, much of that is still kept under wraps, with Corrina Schumacher, Michael's wife, asking for privacy as far as the media is concerned.  In fact, a recent report from The Telegraph states that Corinna launched legal actions against three tabloids over speculation about his health that included such claims as Michael speaking his first words since the accident. A regional court in Munich has banned the reports about the former seven-time F1 champion, and the court's chamber dealing with press law considered the contested forms of coverage as being inadmissible in essential respects and banned them. As the court ruled against the magazines, and found that the coverage had "removed his [Michael's] privacy and was the subject of speculative hope and voyeuristic observation".

Last November, the official Michael Schumacher website was relaunched in order to mark the 20th anniversary of the driver's first world championship. The site provides visitors a place to send messages to his wife and kids called "How to Wish Michael Well". Most of the official Michael Schumacher site is devoted to stories of him as a racing legend, but visitors can leave a personalized message by adding a hashtag of #keepfightingmichael to their tweets, which might take a while before it appears on the official site.