James Vowles has apologised to Mick Schumacher after claiming that the former Haas driver “isn’t special”.

The German racer was overlooked in the decision to replace Logan Sargeant with Williams academy driver Franco Colapinto getting the nod instead.

“Where I read the headlines afterwards this morning, what really came across is using the word special in the context of Mick,” Vowles clarified. “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.”