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GENEVA, Switzerland - Former Formula 1 doctor Gary Hartstein doubts that Michael Schumacher will ever recover from his ski-crash brain injuries.
Britain's Daily Mail claims the F1 legend's wife Corinna is spending the equivalent of R1.7-million per week on his care at their Swiss estate, including an around-the-clock medical team and state-of-the-art equipment.
However, the newspaper believes Schumacher remains in a "minimally conscious" state and is not yet even sitting up unaided let alone walking or talking.
SCHUMI'S LIFE EXPECTANCY
Hartstein, who has been outspoken throughout the Schumacher family's ordeal in 2014, thinks it is worrying that so little is known officially about the former Ferrari and Mercedes driver's progress.
Hartstein said: "As time goes on it becomes less and less likely that Michael will emerge to any significant extent."
He speculated that - in effect - Schumacher remains basically comatose.
Hartstein said: "Life expectancy for a comatose patient who does not improve neurologically is measured in months to relatively few years."
The newspaper's correspondents Allan Hall and Olga Craig quoted a long-time friend of the family as agreeing that the outlook for Schumacher's future was not clear.
"Will he speak again? Will he walk again? Will he be able to feed and dress himself? The doctors don't know. Nobody can know," the unnamed friend said.
"The probability is that he will never be the man he was before the accident. That much is starkly clear."
