Mercedes-Benz and Michael Schumacher have announced a long-term partnership which will extend far beyond motorsport and Formula One.

Schumacher will mainly be involved with topics relating to the future, in particular the further development of the Mercedes-Benz safety and comfort systems "Intelligent Drive", and represent them as an ambassador.

For many years now the seven-times world champion has been working on road safety; as a partner he will from now on be supporting Mercedes-Benz's involvement in this field.

As a racing driver Schumacher's motto was "If you don't go forwards, you go backwards". Again and again he motivated himself and his team throughout his incomparable career to achieve new developments and top performances. Now he is actively placing his expertise at the service of road users by searching for the best solutions for safety on the roads together with Mercedes-Benz.

"The future interests me much more than the present and past," said Schumacher of the new partnership. "During my Formula 1 time I always believed that you must not allow yourself to rest on your laurels, but that you must continuously try to improve. In so doing I was very often able to rely on the help of all the technologies available to me in the car and use them to my advantage. That is why I am a declared supporter of driving assistance systems both in the racing car and in the road-going car."

Dr. Joachim Schmidt, Executive Vice President Mercedes-Benz Cars, Sales and Marketing, added "We are proud that Michael Schumacher, the most successful and best-known racing driver in the world, is again joining us as our partner. Right from the time when he was a Mercedes-Benz junior and of course in the last three years as a driver in our Formula 1 team, Michael Schumacher has always been committed to our company's projects. This is why it is only logical for both sides to pool their expertise and know-how and to use them, for instance, for enhancing driver assistance systems and thus improve safety on the roads within a partnership."

Schumacher will be making his first appearance as a partner of Mercedes-Benz together with Dr. Dieter Zetsche on 1 May 2013 at 'Handelsblatt Pathfinder - The future starts today.'

"I wanted to have a clearly defined remit within the new partnership and I find it very exciting to be able to contribute towards further developments and the optimisation of safety together with the inventor of the car," said the German.