Ralf Schumacher hits out at ‘absurd’ Williams decision after fresh Mick Schumacher F1 blow

With “performance” in mind, Ralf Schumacher branded the decision for Williams to give Franco Colapinto the nod as Logan Sargeant’s replacement over Mick Schumacher “absurd”.

Pressure had already been mounting on Logan Sargeant to retain his Williams seat, with three-time F1 race winner Carlos Sainz confirmed as his F1 2025 replacement. And the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix proved to be Sargeant’s last, who has been shown the door mid-season by Williams.

Ralf Schumacher slams ‘absurd’ Williams Mick Schumacher snub
Sargeant crashed the upgraded Williams FW46 heavily during the final Dutch GP practice session, causing him to miss qualifying, with speculation soon gathering pace that Williams could decide to make a change, Red Bull reserve Liam Lawson and Mercedes reserve Mick Schumacher emerging as options.

But while Williams did decide to replace Sargeant, the driver they chose to see out the F1 2024 campaign in his place was their junior Franco Colapinto, who makes the step up having been contesting his rookie Formula 2 campaign, which yielded a victory and two runner-up results.

However, when it comes to “performance”, Ralf believes it is “absurd” for Williams to have gone with Colapinto over Mick.

“You can perhaps respect this decision because Colapinto is a driver from Williams’ junior programme. But from a performance point of view, I think it’s absurd and doesn’t make sense,” Ralf is quoted by Sky Deutschland as having told the German Press Agency.

It was during the 2021 and 2022 campaigns that Mick raced with Haas, but since being dropped by the team in favour of Nico Hulkenberg, he has been unable to find a way back onto the F1 grid, having since served as Mercedes reserve and linking-up with Alpine’s endurance racing programme.

And Ralf believes that his nephew is still paying the price for taking “too long” to shine against then Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen.