Williams boss James Vowles has confirmed that he turned down Red Bull’s terms for a ’loan’ of Liam Lawson.
Vowles’ patience with the struggling Logan Sargeant finally ran out after Zandvoort. "There were three options on the table which many of you already know about," he told reporters at Monza.
They were Liam Lawson, Mick Schumacher, and Franco Colapinto.
"With Lawson, his contractual position at Red Bull wouldn’t have worked out for me," Vowles said.
Indeed, while Red Bull was willing to discuss a loan, Dr Helmut Marko admits that the deal would have contained plenty of conditions.
"What I can say is that in principle we were prepared to loan him," Red Bull’s senior F1 consultant told Sky Deutschland. "But we wanted to have the guarantee that we could bring him back if necessary, because he is the official reserve driver of both Red Bull teams.
"And we couldn’t say exactly how many races he would be available for," Marko added. "Based on this, it is understandable that Williams did not agree to this deal."
However, there are rumours that Williams always intended to put its own junior Colapinto, 21, in the car, with Lawson and Schumacher only used to drive up the costs for the young Argentine’s substantial backers.
Reports suggest Williams is collecting $500,000 from Colapinto’s financiers, with on-car sponsor deals for Globant and Mercado Libre already announced.
"It’s not as if he took over this seat because of sponsors," Vowles insists. "Actually, it worked the other way around.
"We announced that he would be driving for us, and since then the lines have been running hot from Argentina, with enormous interest from his country," the team principal added.