Lucky to be alive — Schumacher

The broken leg he suffered in his terrifying crash on Sunday at Silverstone means he is likely to miss at least four of the last eight races.

Schumacher is determined to race again before the end of the season, but knows now that he has no chance of becoming the first Ferrari driver to win the world title in 20 years.

“I am lucky to be alive,” said Schumacher, who had a 12-inch plate inserted into the right leg he broke when slamming into a tyre barrier at Stowe Corner.

“I know I’m going to be out of action for two to three months and I realise that I have absolutely no chance of the championship this year. But I’m confident I’ll be back driving a Ferrari in Formula 1 before the end of the season.

The 30-year-old admitted he feared the outcome as his Ferrari skidded across the gravel after a rear brake failure on the opening lap of the race which was won after a restart by McLaren’s David Coulthard.

He will spend a second night at Northampton general hospital, where he was joined by his wife Corinna following the race after she flew in from their home near Geneva.

Schumacher was also visited today by his old British rival Damon Hill whose own Formula 1 future is still up in the air following his fifth place for Jordan in the race.

Schumacher could head back to Switzerland tomorrow where he will begin the long recovery process, but has already told Ferrari officials he wants to be kept informed about what went wrong with the car.

The team immediately said it was rear brake failure, but that does not explain why Schumacher was unable to turn wheels and slide into the tyre barrier rather than ram them head-on.

Even if Schumacher recovers in just eight weeks that would mean he would still miss races in Austria, Germany, Hungary and Belgium and probably Ferrari’s home Grand Prix at Monza in mid-September.

If he missed those, the two-time champion could then be looking at a return in front of his home fans at the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring on September 26.

But if he failed to recover for that one then there is only the maiden Malaysian Grand Prix and the final race in Japan on October 31 for him to target.

But with world champion Mika Hakkinen already holding an eight-point advantage there is no way Schumacher can hope to emulate South African Jody Scheckter’s title triumph of 1979 for the Italian team.

Schumacher has told team-mate Eddie Irvine to take up the mantle of ending Ferrari’s 20-year search following the Ulsterman’s second place at Silverstone which moved him joint second in the championship.