Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack said there was “huge pressure” within the team after results so far this year have not lived up to expectations, but said owner Lawrence Stroll was aware it would take time.
This year, the team has failed to repeat the growth it showed between 2022 and 2023, when it went from seventh in the 2022 constructors’ championship to six podiums in the first eight races, even coming close to a victory in Monaco.
Although Aston Martin achieved impressive and somewhat unexpected results last year, this was also due to the fact that rivals Ferrari and Mercedes persisted with aerodynamic choices that proved inadequate, before veering towards concepts more similar to those of Red Bull’s sidepods. Furthermore, the huge step forward made by McLaren since the second half of 2023 ended up overshadowing the performance of the Silverstone team.
This season, the package of updates introduced at Imola (which included a new front wing, floor and some rear parts) did not deliver the desired results and, although the team has made changes to try to remedy the situation, it currently sits fifth in the constructors’ standings, with a fifth place in the race as its best result.
In an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com ahead of the British Grand Prix, Krack said that the performance at the start of 2023 was “probably not a true reflection of where we really are as a team, because the others were underperforming and we were outperforming.”
When asked how Stroll sees Aston’s situation in 2024 – with the outside perception that the team has taken a step back while others have taken a considerable step forward – Krack replied: “Well, I think there are two sides.”
Mike Krack, Team Principal, Aston Martin F1 Team
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“One is: how much have you improved over the years compared to your competitors? You have to look at how ambitious your goals are and try to manage them. It’s something you discuss, you make a plan and you know you can’t go from seventh to first in a moment, because that’s not possible.”
“You need this, that and that. We’ve seen some of the things we need for the future. So I think you need a certain amount of realism and also patience. But when you go and make a leap in quality and you make improvements, if they don’t deliver the performance they should, then the pressure increases and rightly so.”
“I think the external perception is not wrong. The internal perception is of enormous pressure because the Imola update is not giving us what we expected to get. The goal now is to try to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and, in this regard, I also understand that there is less patience.”
“Lawrence has been in this world for a long time. He knows how Formula 1 works, but he also knows that if he has something that doesn’t work, it takes time to make new parts. So, I think it’s a mix of the two. It’s a situation we don’t want to be in: we started the season in fifth position, we had a plan to get closer to the top cars, but we didn’t realize it.”
As well as trying to make up lost ground with the development of the 2024 car, Aston Martin recently made a change at the top of its management structure, with former Mercedes engine chief Andy Cowell set to replace former McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh as group CEO in October.
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