Williams team principal James Vowles has opened up on the British outfit’s decision to replace Logan Sargeant with Franco Colapinto, a promising young driver from their own academy.
This move came after careful consideration was given to several alternatives, including Red Bull’s Liam Lawson and the well-known Schumacher, but ultimately, the team decided to invest in its own talent pipeline.
Both Lawson and Schumacher were heavily linked to Sargeant’s seat following last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, while Colapinto was never seen as a viable option by pundits.
Vowles explained the rationale behind the team’s unexpected and seemingly bold choice, .
"If we go through what our options were available to us, there were sort of three options on the table: one was Liam Lawson, one was Mick and one was Franco,” the Williams chief explained.
"With Liam, the contractual sort of position of Red Bull wouldn't have worked with me here at Williams so that didn't become an option for us in that circumstance. And then it's a tough choice, it really is between [Franco and] Mick.
"Mick has improved a lot from where he was in Haas, there is no doubt about it. He's a competent driver that I know he had his time but he has done incredible work with Alpine, with Mercedes and with McLaren in the meantime.
"So the decision is do we put Mick in the car, which 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, and on the data that we can see from how he's performing, who's making significant steps?
"I think both would fall into a category of good and not special. I think we have to be straightforward about this. Mick isn't special, he would just be good."
Mick Schumacher and girlfriend Laila.
Vowles highlighted Colapinto's impressive results in F2, noting that he is outperforming highly-rated drivers like Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman despite competing for a smaller team in the series.
"Franco's ahead in the F2 championship of Antonelli, he's ahead of Bearman, he's at MP," Vowles said. "With all due respect to MP, it's not Prema, it's not ART, and he's doing a good job."
Although Vowles acknowledged that Colapinto is facing a significant challenge, he expressed confidence in the young driver's abilities.
"Now do I think we've put someone really in the deep end of the swimming pool? Absolutely, 100%," stated the former Mercedes strategist.
"But if you listen to Franco's own words, you'll hear that he's ready for it, that he's ready for the challenge, and he knows what's in front of him."
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