There has been a "slight improvement" in Michael Schumacher's condition, a source close to the Formula One legend said on Monday, eight days after a skiing accident left him with life-threatening injuries.

Schumacher remains in critical condition in hospital, where he has been in a medically-induced coma since the accident on Dec 29 in the French ski resort of Meribel, where he owns a chalet.

But there are small signs of improvement and his family hopes he will pull through, the source told the German sports news agency SID, on condition of anonymity.