Formula One F1 - Austrian Grand Prix - Red Bull Ring, Spielberg, Austria - June 27, 2024 Mercedes reserve driver Mick Schumacher ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix REUTERS/Florion Goga/ File Photo
MONZA, Italy (Reuters) - Williams Formula One boss James Vowles has apologised to Mick Schumacher after saying the son of seven-times world champion and Ferrari great Michael was good but "not special"
Vowles made the comment on Friday in explaining why Williams had preferred Argentine F2 racer Franco Colapinto over the more experienced Mercedes reserve as a replacement for dropped American Logan Sargeant.
"First and foremost, I’m not here to put Mick down," Vowles told F1 television.
"Mick is in a world championship team 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."
Schumacher was dropped by Haas after two seasons and at the end of 2022.
He has now been passed over by Mercedes, Renault-owned Alpine -- with whom he has raced in world endurance -- and Williams when they had F1 vacancies to fill.
Vowles said Williams' decision was because they wanted to use a driver from their own academy and he had apologised personally to Schumacher.
"He didn’t request anything, but it’s important to me, because he’s incredibly close to me and it just came across entirely the wrong way," he said. "More than anything else, I wanted that to be abundantly clear."
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
