Following his quite optimistic statement about former colleague Michael Schumacher's health condition, Ross Brawn is backtracking on his comment saying that he was misunderstood.

Talking to BBC (via Vine Report), the former motorsport engineer said that there were "encouraging signs" in the former champion's condition after his skiing accident a couple of years back. Now, Brawn is clarifying what he meant by the things that he said in a more recent conversation with The Guardian.

"We go see him and hope and pray that one day he will make a recovery. I was quoted as saying he's improving and it was not what I really meant. The family are conducting his convalescence in private and I need to respect that. So I don't want to comment on his condition beyond saying we're extremely hopeful we'll see Michael as we knew him at some point in the future," he explained.

It is no secret that the Schumacher family has been trying to keep Michael's true condition out of the public's knowledge since his mishap. And it seems that a testament to the very adamant wishes of wife Corinna and the rest of clan resonates with Brawn having to tweak his statement a bit. This ongoing media blackout has caused a major backlash on the family for quite a while now but it appears that they will not be changing this kind of arrangement any time soon.

Brawn also got a little bit nostalgic during the interview when thinking about Michael whom he helped in nabbing the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1994 and 1995 with the Benetton Team as he was their technical director.

The 61-year-old said that the German professional racer "was the best of all not just for his driving ability — but his ability to be a crucial part of creating our teams at Benetton and Ferrari. He was a dream to work with — but Michael is the only driver of that caliber I've worked with and he is a friend. So I'm biased."