Williams boss Vowles angers Schumacher camp: 2024 Italian GP F1 Diary

“Both will fall into a category of good, not special, I think we have to be straightforward about this,” Vowles said of Colapinto and Schumacher. “Mick isn’t special, he just would have been good.”

Just clipping up that quote betrays the explanation from Vowles that Schumacher has done a lot of testing in previous cars and made clear progress as a driver, but it was also an extremely harsh truth. If Schumacher was special, he would still be in a seat, or would have been signed by someone else.

That’s not to say Schumacher isn’t deserving of a spot on the grid, or doesn’t have the ability to further develop into a top class F1 driver, but Vowles was looking for a temporary fix and wouldn’t be preparing Schumacher for a future at Williams.

The comments did not go down well, though, and Vowles said he apologised to Mick himself as he felt he had not made clear that by “special” he meant an Ayrton Senna-type talent. That didn’t stop Corinna Schumacher making her feelings to Vowles known as the Williams team principal left the track on Friday, in a quite public setting outside the paddock as well…

Sauber can take its time

The driver market has been volatile all season and even with few seats available there is ongoing intrigue about what could still play out.

Antonelli’s promotion to the Mercedes seat confirmed what many already knew up and down the grid, and those without a drive for 2024 are realistically left targeting the spot at Sauber ahead of its transition into the Audi works team.

Current incumbents Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu both hold out hope of getting the nod, but plenty of outside names have been linked with the drive as well, including that of McLaren young driver Gabriel Bortoleto. The Brazilian has backing and clear talent, with his rookie season in Formula 2 going from strength to strength as he climbed from the last on the grid to eighth in the sprint race and the same position to win the feature on Sunday.

Those results put him just 10.5 points off the title lead, and a rookie championship could see him in the mix for a surprise promotion. That case could also be helped by Franco Colapinto performing on debut at Williams, with another rookie who only stepped up from F3 last year showing up well on his debut at Monza.

But what some of those close to the situation believe is that Sauber will take its time, with no other seat available outside of RB, meaning it now has its pick of all the drivers currently not racing in Formula 1, and perhaps Daniel Ricciardo if he were to lose his spot too.

Flav still rules the roost

The timings on the grid before a race are particularly strict, given the number of guests, VIPs and media that are allowed to walk among the cars up to the national anthem. Following that point, Formula 1 security start to disperse the crowds, with broadcasters among the last to be removed before team members also start to clear the grid at the five-minute warning.

But at his home race, Flavio Briatore was not a fan of that schedule. With a number of guests associated with Alpine on the grid – including tennis world number one Carlos Alcaraz – there was a surreal moment when security attempted to direct them off the grid, and the guests kept trying to walk towards the Alpine cars.

That usually leads to quite an aggressive approach from F1, but just as things were starting to escalate, Briatore took control, shouting at the security member that they were with him and it was OK.

Whether they were with Briatore or not, their passes were not supposed to allow them to be on the grid beyond that time, but the assertiveness with which the Italian dismissed the F1 personnel meant he got his way. Flavio’s definitely back.