Michael Schumacher’s wife yells at F….
Michael Schumacher’s wife yells at F1 team boss in angry confrontation over son Mick
James Vowles experienced the ire of Michael Schumacher’s wife Corinna after the Williams team boss’ comments about her son Mick after he was overlooked for an F1 drive
Corinna Schumacher angrily confronted Williams team principal James Vowles over his comments about her son.
Mick Schumacher was in contention to race for the team until the end of this season after Vowles decided to replace the struggling Logan Sargeant. But the German was overlooked and youngster Franco Colapinto was promoted from the team’s academy instead.
That decision will have disappointed Corinna, wife of seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael. But what angered her were Vowles’ comments when he was later asked to explain why Mick, a Mercedes reserve who spent two years racing for Haas, was not chosen.
“Mick isn’t special, he would just be good,” he said. Vowles later confirmed that he had sought out the 24-year-old to apologise and explain what he had meant by his blunt comment.
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The Williams chief asserted: “I read the headlines afterwards this morning, what really came across is using the word special in the context of Mick and I really want to clarify what I mean, first and foremost. I’m not here to put Mick down. Mick is in a world championship team [Mercedes] who have chosen him as reserve driver.
“And there’s good reason behind it. That is because he’s an incredibly strong candidate. And the word special? I use it in the context of multiple world champions like Ayrton Senna fundamentally, Lewis [Hamilton] as well. Clearly that’s a foolish thing to do, because that’s the comparison.
“I’ve apologised to Mick as well. 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. So more than anything else, I wanted that to be abundantly clear. Don’t doubt his abilities, but we as Williams have to go with our Academy. It makes sense what we’re doing.”
James Vowles had to clarify his blunt comments about Mick Schumacher(Getty Images)
Vowles’ explanation did not save him from the ire of Mick’s mother, Corinna. Writing for Motor Sport, paddock stalwart Chris Medland said he had witnessed Mrs Schumacher confront the Williams chief over his initial comments.