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The 45-year-old has been transferred to Lausanne university hospital in Switzerland, officials there say.

Schumacher was placed in a medically induced coma after suffering a severe head injury in a skiing accident in the French Alps on 29 December.

His family thanked people who had sent messages of support, saying: "We are sure it helped him."

They also praised the "excellent job" of medical staff at the hospital in Grenoble, in south-east France.

Doctors had kept the seven-time champion in a coma to help reduce swelling in his brain.

"Michael has left the CHU Grenoble to continue his long phase of rehabilitation. He is not in a coma anymore," Schumacher's manager, Sabine Kehm, said in a statement on behalf of his family on Monday.

"For the future we ask for understanding that his further rehabilitation will take place away from the public eye," she said, without giving further details.

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Relatives have previously warned that "it was clear from the start that this will be a long and hard fight for Michael".

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the university hospital in Lausanne is one of Switzerland's most renowned hospitals, with all the expertise a patient would need.

But it is not clear what Schumacher's condition is and his process of recovery is still expected to be a long one, our correspondent adds.

Monday's statement was the first substantial update since early April when Ms Kehm said the German racing driver was showing "moments of consciousness and awakening."

Neurosurgeon Tony Belli told the BBC that rehabilitation from this sort of injury could take months or years.

"We know that some people can spend three, four years in rehabilitation," he said. "It depends very much on the severity of the injury, how young and fit they are."

Meanwhile, the German football team sent their wishes to the F1 legend from the World Cup in Brazil at the weekend.

Lukas Podolski, the Arsenal striker, told a news conference: "I'd like to greet a good friend, who unfortunately is unable to be here. He is Michael Schumacher.

"He is just as crazy about football as all of us. We wish his family a lot of strength. If we win the title, that would be something that would make him happy."

The BBC's James Allen says the reaction from the F1 world has been enormously positive on one level, but the lack of specific details about his condition has left a question mark for many people.

The Mercedes team, for which Schumacher raced in the last three years of his career, posted on Twitter: ``Encouraging news on Michael's condition this morning. We couldn't ask for a better start to the week."

Investigators probing last December's accident said Schumacher had been going at the speed of "a very good skier" at the time of his crash in the resort of Meribel.

He had been skiing off-piste when he fell and hit a rock, investigators said.

Schumacher retired from racing in 2012 after a 19-year career.

He won two titles with Benetton, in 1994 and 1995, before switching to Ferrari in 1996 and going on to win five straight titles from 2000.

Quote (Morphmcmanerson @ Jun 16 2014 07:17am)

Imagine going skiing in December one day... then waking up in the middle of June.
Crazy shit.

Glad to hear he's going to pull through, like the champion that he is.

Quote (Morphmcmanerson @ 16 Jun 2014 05:17)

Imagine going skiing in December one day... then waking up in the middle of June.
Crazy shit.

Quote (ride686 @ Jun 16 2014 11:54am)

He's "conscious" but hes no where near fine. The brain damage at this point is probably extensive. It'd be awesome if he made any kind of recovery that would make him at least functional, but I really doubt it.

Quote (FMX_89 @ Jun 16 2014 05:14pm)

I would bet he doesn't even know it's June.  He may be out of the Coma but after 6 months he is probably barely self aware.

Quote (JDH @ Jun 16 2014 07:36pm)

both of these. i seen one story and a neurosurgeon or something like that said he more than likely will have to relearn how to do every single thing and thats if he can recover enough. theres no way of knowing at this point how much he can recover but they said theres a possibility he wont even act like the old michael schumacher.

i however do hope him a full recovery its sad that someone that lives that close to the brink of death retires, and then almost dies skiing on vacation.

Quote (FMX_89 @ Jun 16 2014 08:38pm)

Brain injuries are whack.  They are mostly guessing.  I know a guy that sustained a TBI on an ATV.  He was only in a coma for 2 days and his personality changed entirely and it took him 9 months to come back to work at our MC shop.  He was the head mechanic with 31yrs of experience.  When he came back he was misdiagnosing the simplest stuff.  They ended up letting him go after 2 or 3 more years.  He still acts totally different than he used to.  They didn't even remove a piece of his skull and we are only 10 minutes away from a hospital.

So after being out 6 months I can only imagine they are ecstatic he is conscious, no matter how little function he has.  If he turns out to be 99% vegetable, is that really best?  I know I wouldn't want someone wiping the drool off my face unless I had enough cognitive function to understand what was happening around me.  I'm not the praying type but I hope the best for him and his family.