THE tears failed to flow yesterday as Michael Schumacher, the world’s most successful racing driver, announced his retirement and then faced up to how to spend the rest of his life.

The man the world believes has the hardest heart in sport refused to let slip what his future holds. Only his closest friends and confidants know what awaits him after a motor racing career that has raised millions of pounds for charity.

The son of a builder from Kerpen, near Cologne, has donated almost £30 million to projects around the world in the past four years alone and, if motor racing fails to hold its allure when he hangs up his helmet at the end of the Formula One season, it is thought that he might plough his considerable wealth into a full-time foundation.

If the public perception of Schumacher for the past 15 years has been one of snarling arrogance, the private Schumacher, 37, is a warm family man whose tastes are as mundane as a Bacardi and Coke and a cigar, and who wants to know that his vast earnings are not all being stashed in offshore accounts.

Unlike like many famous sportsmen or showbusiness stars, he has kept celebrity magazines at arm’s length and his donations would have gone almost unnoticed but for research by BusinessF1 magazine, which checked records in Germany. They found that Schumacher had contributed to the building of hospitals, orphanages and schools in areas such as Peru and Senegal.

He was the biggest private donor to the Asian Tsunami Appeal, giving about £6 million, and works tirelessly for Unesco, the United Nations’ body that works with children.

But so secretive is he about his giving, few, even in his Ferrari team, knew the extent of his charitable work.

It is typical of a man whose privacy is guarded with an even greater fervour than his dedication to winning grands prix. Schumacher is one of the few sportsmen who reached the rarefied stratosphere of fame, in which life is restricted to a circle of just a few trusted friends and relatives. As his fame and vast wealth — about £300 million in salaries alone from his Benetton and Ferrari positions — grew, so did his paranoia.

But Corinna, his wife, has taken over in recent years as the leading influence, and a man who spent almost all his life at racetracks surrounded by men dedicated to help him win has learnt how to live.

He and his wife bought a farm on the banks of Lake Geneva and Schumacher indulged his love of football, playing for the village team. The couple have two children, Gina-Maria, 9, and Mick, 7, who became Schumacher’s most important focus. He even started taking long winter holidays in Formula One’s off-season, skiing at his estate in Norway, instead of relentlessly testing his Ferrari in search of perfection.

Ross Brawn, the Manchester- born technical director who has guided Schumacher to his record seven world championships, said: “People cannot understand what it is like to be Schumacher. He withdraws because he is naturally shy. But with his friends he is fiercely loyal and loves to joke.”

Harold Huisman, a neighbour in Norway, said: “People think Michael is always angry, always miserable. He is not. He is just cautious about showing his true personality in public.

“But he is a lovely, warm guy — a family man who hasn’t forgotten his working-class roots.”

Certainly he is a man with heart. One unreported incident of his kindness occurred in 1994 when he accidentally ran over the foot of a young boy with his scooter at Silverstone before the British Grand Prix.

Schumacher was mortified when told and dashed to the medical centre, where he handed over a signed T-shirt and cap to Ian Foulds, of Seaham, Co Durham. A demonstration that the winning machine is human, after all.

THE FORMULA FOR HIGHER EARNINGS

He has also collaborated on a series of books charting his Formula One success including Michael Schumacher: The Ferrari Years and Formula for Success. He has also lent his image and expertise to the creators of computer games

ALTRUISM TO AFRICA

BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION The largest charitable foundation in the world, with an initial endowment of $26 billion. Much of the fund's work is in fighting disease in Africa

WARREN BUFFETT The US investor announced this year that he would donate much of his fortune, about $37 billion, to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

ELTON JOHN AIDS FOUNDATION Sir Elton John established his foundation in 1992. Since then he has donated more than $60 million globally to Aids prevention and combating discrimination

ANDREW CARNEGIE One of the world's most famous philanthropists, in 1901 he began to give away his $350 million fortune. Initially restricted to educational projects in Scotland and the US, his foundation's grants now include Africa

ELIZABETH TAYLOR AIDS FOUNDATION Elizabeth Taylor has donated $8 million to Aids organisations worldwide

Times Recommends

• Violent video games won’t corrupt
• Pope Benedict XVI: Alma Mater
• Chávez should know what’s good for him