Wolff holds back after Vowles' comment about 'not special' Schumacher
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- Ludo van Denderen
If it had been up to Mercedes, Mick Schumacher would not currently be in Austin, Texas. There, the German is competing (with Alpine) in the World Endurance Championship this weekend. But actually Mercedes had hoped (expected even?) that Schumacher had been chosen by Williams to replace Logan Sargeant with immediate effect. So that did not happen, partly because Williams team principal James Vowles believes Schumacher is 'a good driver, but not special'.
As a result, the British team ended up with Franco Colapinto, a driver from their own Academy. When GPblog asked about the aforementioned remark by Vowles, a former colleague of Wolff's at Mercedes, the Mercedes team principal remained cautious. Then choosing his words carefully, the Austrian seemed to weigh each sentence.
'Mick Schumacher won everything there was to win'
"I have known James for such a long time and he's a bright mind," Wolff began. "He finds his feet in the team principal's role. I think he will have chosen his words. Mick is someone that has won pretty much everything. F4, F3, F2. He's been crushed in the Haas environment at that stage. We have not seen it (there, where Mick could not show his potential)," Wolff defended the German - who was widely criticised at the time.
He then elaborated on Williams' choice. "But every team needs to take his own decisions. And for the best interest of the team. Then also to decide how they wants to talk about their drivers in the media. And so everybody needs to do this in a way that they think is good," Wolff said.
This article was written in collaboration with Kada Sarkozi
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17 September 2024
