Racing legend Michael Schumacher made a rare public gesture by signing a helmet on display at the Bahrain Grand Prix on April 13, which is up for auction.
Michael Schumacher, 56, signed his initials "M.S." on a helmet that belonged to another racing icon, Sir Jackie Stewart. The helmet will be auctioned to raise money for a dementia charity founded by the 85-year-old former racer.
"It's wonderful that Michael can sign a helmet for this great cause - a disease that currently has no cure. His wife helped him, and it completes his collection of autographs from all the living champions," Sir Jackie Stewart told the Daily Mail.
The event was a rare public appearance for the F1 legend since his horrific skiing accident in the French Alps 12 years ago. The gesture was all the more touching as Michael Schumacher has been out of the public eye for a long time, The Sun commented. After suffering a serious brain injury during a skiing trip in late 2013, he was put into an induced coma and is said to have required 24-hour care since then.
Michael Schumacher's rare public contribution comes after it was reported that he attended his daughter Gina's wedding at a villa in Majorca, Spain, late last September. However, a close friend of the legendary racer confirmed that this information is not true. Last month, Michael Schumacher became a grandfather after his daughter Gina announced the birth of her first child.
Michael Schumacher now lives in a £50m home on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, where he is cared for by a medical team. Corinna, who has always guarded her husband's privacy, has created a tight-knit, tightly-controlled inner circle around the F1 legend.
Only a select few are allowed access to Schumacher, including former Ferrari boss Jean Todt, former teammates Felipe Massa and Luca Badoer, and long-time manager Sabine Kehm.
Sir Jackie Stewart's white helmet, emblazoned with his signature Royal Stewart tartan, was seen at the Bahrain Grand Prix on 13 April. Stewart, 85, drove the 1973 championship-winning Tyrell for an exhibition lap - a tribute to both his past and his personal struggles off the track.
The Scot set up the dementia charity after his wife, Lady Helen, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2014 - months after Michael Schumacher's crash. In an interview, Stewart revealed his wife recently failed to recognise him for the first time. "Just the other day at dinner time, she got up and I was sitting nearby, and she said, 'Where's Jackie?'. That was the first time it had happened, and it was only a few weeks ago," he said. "I had a terrible feeling."