Williams team principal James Vowles shared regrets for comments he made this week about Mick Schumacher that took a run through F1 media.
Schumacher was one of three options for Williams as it sought to replace Logan Sargeant this week. In explaining his decision to elevate Franco Colapinto instead, Vowles said, “I think we have to be straightforward about this. Mick isn’t special – he just would have been good.”
On Saturday during an appearance on F1TV, Vowles said the comments had not come across as he had intended and he had reached out to Schumacher to apologize. Here’s what he said, per F1.com:
💬 “First and foremost, I’m not here to put Mick down. Mick is in a World Championship team [Mercedes] that have chosen him as a 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, Lewis [Hamilton] as well. 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.”
💬“He didn’t request anything, but it’s important to me (to reach out to him), because he’s incredibly close to me and it just came across entirely the wrong way. More than anything else, I wanted that to be abundantly clear.”
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