Williams Formula 1 team principal James Vowles insists that Franco Colapinto was the best replacement for the sacked Logan Sargeant – and he has explained why Mick Schumacher didn’t get the nod.
F2 graduate and Williams academy driver Colapinto was named on Tuesday for the last nine races of the season.
Vowles confirmed that Red Bull’s Liam Lawson was an option, but that didn’t happen because of contractual complications.
It then came down to a straight choice between Colapinto and Mercedes reserve Schumacher.
“So if we go through what our options were available to us, there were sort of three options on the table,” said Vowles. “One was Liam Lawson, one was Mick, and one was Franco.
“With Liam, the contractual position of Red Bull wouldn’t have worked with me here at Williams, so that that didn’t become an option for us in that circumstance. And then it’s a tough choice. It really is.”
Vowles says that Schumacher is a better driver now than he was after his two seasons at Haas, but that improvement still wasn’t enough to justify taking him.
“Mick has improved a lot from where he was in Haas, there is no doubt about it,” he said. “I know that he has had his time, but he’s done incredible work with Alpine, with Mercedes and with McLaren in the meantime.
“And all advocates, if you speak to them, will tell you where he’s adapted and where he’s changed.
“So now the decision is do we put Mick in the car? I think Mick would have done a good job.
“Or do we invest in an individual that’s a part of our academy, that’s done hundreds to thousands of laps in our simulator, that’s driven the car, the only driver to have driven the car this year in FP1?
“And on the data that we can see from what he’s doing and how he’s performing, he’s making significant steps?”
Vowles made his view about Schumacher clear.
“I think we have to be straightforward about this,” he said. “Mick isn’t special. He would just have been good. I think he would come with a lot more experience than Franco does.
“But here’s what I believe in, and what Williams believes in, and what’s at the core values of Williams.
“Williams has always invested in new generations of drivers and youth, and what I’ve been speaking about all the way through is the investment in the future of Williams. And the future of Williams isn’t investing in the past. It’s investing in talent that allows us to move forward as individuals.”
Regarding Sargeant’s departure Vowles said that the American had reached his limit.
“If you speak to every TP up and down the pit lane, no one wants to change a driver mid-season,” he said.
“It’s horrible. It is incredibly tough on the driver. It is tough on the team. It is disruptive, to say the least. And so it’s a good question, why change it now? The cleanest point to have done it would have been at the beginning of the year.
“Logan, at the end of last year, was starting to get within a tenth of Alex and starting to be close.
“And it was good to see his progression. And if that progression continued, we would have a driver, I think, in a very strong place this year. And it didn’t feel like the right point to cut ties as a result of it.
“So the reason now is straightforward. We’ve had enough experience under our belt to know that he’s reached the limit of what he’s able to achieve. And, in fact, it’s almost unfair on him furthermore to continue with it.
“Look at his face when he gets out the car. He’s given you everything he possibly can, and it’s not enough. He absolutely never, from a human perspective, did anything but give me 100% of what he was able to do, but the realisation of where he is on his limits now is very clear.”
Vowles said It would only have got harder for Sargeant as the season went on.
“The relationship can only become more and more difficult across the last nine races towards the end of the year, because he knows what his future holds, which is not to be an F1 anymore,” he said.
“And actually a clean break at that stage feels like the correct decision for all parties. It feels like it’s fair to Logan.
“He won’t feel that way today, but I hope he reflects on it in the future. That is fair towards him in that regard, changing also between a back-to-back race is terrible. It really is an awful thing to do, which hopefully shows you where we are in this. And it wasn’t just to be very clear for everyone.
“It’s not just based on an accident. It was based on in the race. He had all of the parts that Alex had available to him, but the performance wasn’t there. He was lacking in that area, and the gap was almost as big as it was last year.”