Michael Schumacher’s manager gives new insight into F1 legend’s personality. Michael Schumacher's manager gives new insight into F1 legend's personality.

Michael Schumacher’s manager has revealed why people had a “hard time” getting to know the Formula 1 legend as she gave new insight into his personality.

Michael Schumacher, 49, suffered a life-changing brain injury in a horrific skiing accident in the French Alps in 2013. The German is currently undergoing intensive treatment at his home in Switzerland.

On the fifth anniversary of the accident, Schumacher’s manager and former spokesperson Sabine Kehm spoke in more detail than usual about a man renowned for being private.

Describing him as the embodiment of “typical German characteristics”, she said he was “faithful, reliable, dutiful, fact-driven”.

However, the same traits that helped him succeed on the track could also hold him back “in the human field”.

She told German outlet Express : “With the same meticulousness he used to drive his professional development, he shielded his private side and his family from public life, consciously accepting that people were having a hard time meeting him.

Kehm said Schumacher struggled with the expectation that he should have a certain level of openness in public.

She claimed he “always freaked out” during public appearances.

“‘Do I have to demonstratively show that I have feelings so that they can be taken from me?,’ he has often asked, and most often immediately gave the answer, ‘This is hypocritical.'”

That importance on privacy remains a big part of his life as very little information has been released about the German and his condition since his accident.

Early in his career, Schumacher was “insecure” and was consumed by the fear of making mistakes, said Kehm.

However, she said he developed into a confident national hero by analysing himself, both as a racing driver and a person.

Acknowledging that Schumacher was a “complex human being”, Kehm said he was “passionate, generous, respectful. But also combative, strong-willed, ruthless in the matter”.

She added that he was the ultimate team player, who believed he had a responsibility to deliver.

Kehm became Schumacher’s press spokesperson in 2000 and replaced Willi Weber as his manager a decade later.

She also pointed out that he only achieved the financial means to support his son Mick’s racing career in the “autumn on his career” and instilled his own values in his children.

“No performance, no chance – it was that simple,” she said.