31/08/2024
NEWS STORY
James Vowles has apologised for referring to Mick Schumacher as not being special.
The Williams boss had made the claim when explaining why he opted to use rookie Franco Colapinto for the remainder of the season instead of Liam Lawson or Schumacher, son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher.
"It becomes a decision do we invest in the future or do we invest in someone else as a result of it," he said of the decision making process he went through regarding Colapinto and Schumacher., having dismissed Lawson as a prospect due to his close Red Bull ties. "Both will fall into a category of good, not special, I think we have to be straightforward about this, Mick isn't special, he just would have been good, I think he would have come with a lot more experience than Franco does, but here's what I and Williams believe in, and the core values."
The comment didn't go down well with Vowles' former boss at Mercedes, Toto Wolff, who leapt to the German's defence.
"I've obviously known James for many years, he's a strategist," Wolff told Sky Sports. "Sometimes he says things too straightforwardly... that was a statement he could have done without.
"Mick has won everything there is to win, from F4, F3 and F2, and then of course operated in an environment with Gunther, who is brutally tough and that was perhaps not what he needed to develop as a driver.
"That's why he deserved the chance. If you don't give it to him, you shouldn't comment on it, you should let everyone live. That's my opinion."
"What really came across is me using the word special in the context of Mick," Vowles subsequently told F1TV. "And I really want to clarify that. I mean, first and foremost, I'm not here to put Mick down. Mick is in a world championship team that have chosen him as reserve driver. And there's good reason behind it. It's because he's an incredibly strong candidate.
"The word special, I used it in the context of multiple world champions like Ayrton Senna, fundamentally Lewis as well. And clearly that's a foolish thing to do because that's the comparison.
"Here's where Mick is. He's had a tough run of it. He's made some exceptional progress and he's in a very strong team around him. Our decision is based on the fact that we want to go with our academy and our drivers.
"I've apologized to Mick," he revealed. "He didn't request anything, but it's important to me because he's incredibly close to me and it just came out entirely the wrong way.
"So more than anything else, I wanted that to be abundantly clear. I don't doubt his abilities, but we as Williams have to go with our academy. It makes sense what we're doing."