Aston Martin’s team principal Mike Krack wants his team to stay grounded after starting the 2023 season with a podium finish.
Krack admitted the team hadn’t fully believed in its potential before the race. “Coming here we didn’t know 100% where we were because in testing you never really know who does what.”The Silverstone-based squad recorded their best qualifying result since the 2020 as Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll put themselves fifth and eighth on the grid. Krack said it was “really, really important not to set a foot wrong in qualifying” and capitalise on the car’s potential.
Alonso finished third, three places ahead of Stroll, achieving the team’s seventh double points finish since it rebranded as Aston Martin two years ago. Krack said the team’s strategy “was really executed properly.”
However Krack admitted he didn’t think a top-three finish was on after Alonso and Stroll made contact on the opening lap and fell to seventh and ninth places respectively.
“We knew that we were not bad, we knew that we had a strong race pace, but so many things could go wrong. After two laps, I was not dreaming of a podium to be very honest with you.”
Although Alonso rebounded to finish on the podium, Krack pointed out his drivers benefited from the retirement of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who had a power unit problem while running in third.
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Despite the high positions of both Aston Martins, Alonso was 0.6 seconds slower than Max Verstappen in qualifying and finished 38s behind the race winner. That gives Krack cause to doubt the team are likely to challenge for wins in the near future.
“I think the gap is still substantial [to the front],” he said. We don’t know how much management the Red Bull had to do and did. I think it was quite comfortable for them.”
“So we have now one good result, we have improved our car, but we are fighting here with teams that are used to driving in the front that are very used to high intensity development. So I think again let’s be respectful and humble and see how it continues.”
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Todfod (@todfod)
6th March 2023, 14:04
Krack seems like a grounded bloke. It was questionable whether they would have finished on the podium if Leclerc didn’t retire.
If Stroll hadn’t tapped Alonso on lap 1, I think the battle between Alonso and Leclerc would have gone down to the wire, as he wouldn’t have lost a lot of time behind Russell. But right now, I would still say they’re the 3rd quickest car, behind Ferrari on quali pace, but slightly ahead on race pace due to tyre management.
BasCB (@bascb)
6th March 2023, 15:05
Yeah, agree on both those things. AM did a really good job. They are on a better level than Mercedes currently and did well to get what they could on Sunday.
Good to see the team leadership acknowledge that they were clearly handed a bit of luck when that podium opportunity arose due to Leclerc dropping out of the race after that start touch saw the fighting change to claim it slipping from their grasp in the first corners.
Shimks (@shimks)
7th March 2023, 11:52
But while Krack has his feet firmly planted on the ground, it’s interesting to hear Alonso’s thoughts too. He knows the game better than anyone and he still has high hopes of getting a win this year with a bit of luck. So that car must be pretty good. But as Alonso said and we all know… Bahrain is a different kettle of fish to a lot of the other tracks, so let’s see after Round 3 if there is some consistency to AM’s performance. Fingers crossed! I haven’t been this excited in F1 for ages! @todfod @bascb
Sviat
6th March 2023, 17:02
Do they have any new parts for the next races? I haven’t seen any comments from them regarding upgrades or Jeddah or Australia.