Wolff hits back at Vowles, the latter clarifies Schumacher statement

To be honest, it was admirable to see Vowles take his decision on replacing Logan Sargeant without caving to any pressure Wolff may have put on him to give Schumacher the drive. It was a big surprise when the Williams' boss hired Franco Colapinto.

But then to go and belittle Schumacher while justifying his decision was a faux pas by Vowles who seems still lacking when it comes to the Formula 1 team boss communication skills.

Schumacher is not a Max Verstappen, but he could have developed into a better driver, a solid one, had he not been mismanaged by his father Michael's entourage and Ferrari's Mattia Binotto at the time who placed him under the watch of the clueless Guenther Steiner at Haas.

Now we have no idea how much of a repair job Mercedes did on young Mick during his time as a reserve, but a drive at Williams could've shown the results, if any.

Now Vowles had the right to choose his drivers on his own, no doubt, but why badmouth another driver, especially that the one he chose, Colapinto, may not end up being any better?

Wolff hit back at his former employee, he told Sky Sports F1: "I've obviously known James for many years, he's a strategist, sometimes he says things too straightforwardly. That was a statement he could have done without.

"Mick has won everything there is to win, from F4, F3 and F2, and then of course operated in an environment with Gunther [Steiner], who is brutally tough and that was perhaps not what he needed to develop as a driver.

"That's why he deserved the chance. If you don't give it to him, you shouldn't comment on it, you should let everyone live. That's my opinion," the Austrian concluded.

Just after second practice at Monza on Friday, Vowles took to F1 TV to try and limit the damage of his earlier statement regarding Schumacher.

To those who watched, Vowles' awkward body language and, to be honest, clumsy explanation said it all.

He said: "What really came across is me using the word 'special' in context of Mick and I really want to clarify that.

"First and foremost I'm not here to put Mick down, Mick is in a world championship team, that has 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," the Williams boss admitted. "Here's where Mick is, he's had a tough run of it, he has 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 drivers," Vowles concluded.

Lessons were learned at Monza on Friday. Mercedes protégé Kimi Antonelli learned the hard way that F1 can be brutal after his crash in FP1, while Vowles learned what he should or should not say as an F1 team boss.