Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2023

Krack eager to see Red Bull’s “true strength” in Europe

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In the round-up: Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack says he is looking forward to seeing how close Aston Martin are to Red Bull around some more conventional European circuits

In brief

Krack eager to see Red Bull’s “true strength”

After many races around temporary and street circuits, Mike Krack says he is looking forward to how Aston Martin compares to Red Bull over the coming European races.

Aston Martin have typically been closest to Red Bull around street circuits or circuits with tight corners, like Jeddah, Monaco and Montreal. After being slower than Mercedes at the last permanent circuit in Spain, Krack says he has no concerns about his team’s potential performance over the upcoming rounds.

“No, I’m not concerned, because I think we have seen the latest upgrades have seemed to work,” he said. “There is some tracks coming now where you have a lot of high-speed corners, and I think we improved our car in high-speed corners, which we have maybe not so many [in Montreal].

“So, actually, we’re looking forward to them. Because in such circuits I think we will also see the true strength of the Red Bull, and also it means we have a better indication of how far we are away.”

Buhler sets pace in F1 Academy practice

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ART driver Lena Buhler was the quickest driver during practice day for this weekend’s F1 Academy round at Zandvoort.

Buhler, who sits third in the series championship after the first three rounds, set a best time of 1’36.689 around the Dutch circuit, three tenths of a second faster than Carlin’s Jessica Edgar.

Qualifying for this weekend’s three races will take place this morning, ahead of race one later this afternoon and the final two races tomorrow. Marta Garcia holds a 41 point lead at the top of the drivers’ standings over Hamda Al Qubaisi.

Hinchcliffe returns to racing

Former IndyCar driver turned commentator James Hinchcliffe has returned to racing for the first time since stepping away from IndyCar at the end of 2021.

The six-time IndyCar race winner stepped away from the series after the season-ending Grand Prix of Long Beach and has not raced in any competitive capacity since.

Yesterday he raced for the first time in the seventh round of the North American Mazda MX-5 series at Watkins Glen, starting in seventh on the grid and finishing in sixth. At second race at the New York circuit takes place later today.

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Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

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Comment of the day

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali’s claims that the next generation of power units from 2026 will make cars louder again is music to the ears of reader Alan Dove…

Emotion directs human energy, and in the case of F1 that energy is translated into ticket sales. So, no it isn’t ‘wasted power’ it is literally the root of power.

There’s a very archaic and out-of-date view that sound doesn’t matter, yet music is literally used in treatment of dementia and so on. Music is one of the most remarkable aspects of the human experience, and great sounding cars absolutely evoke similar feelings of emotions in people. To deny otherwise really is a dinosaur tendency, especially since the Neuroscience of Music is an exciting, new and interesting pursuit that has gained traction in the last decade or so.

To go back to wasted energy. Motorsport is a discretionary activity. To not appeal to human emotion because it’s ‘wasted energy’ would be to seal its fate as a pointless activity that may as well not exist. it is wasted energy in and of itself.

I can’t speak for the plans for 2026 for F1 as it problem will be rubbish as it has been ever since 2014 (and tbh the V8s were never particularly tuneful), but I can speak for why sound really does matter. To deny this, is very very very old-fashioned.
Alan Dove

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Andrew Smith, Daniel and Inc0Mmunicado!

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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13 comments on “Krack eager to see Red Bull’s “true strength” in Europe”

  1. Profile Photo

    Darryn Smith (@darryn)
    24th June 2023, 0:33

    Only way we will see their true strength is if AM or Merc get a lot faster and more consistent.

  2. SadF1fan
    24th June 2023, 0:58

    Couldn’t agree more with COTD.

  3. Profile Photo

    Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
    24th June 2023, 2:59

    The debate over the loudness of the engines since 2014 has and continues to miss the point that something simply been louder doesn’t make it better.

    The 2006-2013 V8s were very loud but the actual sound they produced was never especially interesting or satisfying. The V6s are quieter (But have got quite a bit louder since 2014) but the actual sound they produce is richer with more depth and there is a noticeable difference between the manufacturers which was never the case with the V8s which all sounded basically the same. A very shrill painfully loud noise.

    The 3.0/3.5ltr V8/10/12s used from 1989-2005 were far better than the V8s, The V8/V10s weren’t as loud as the 06-13 2.4ltr V8s but again the actual sound was far better.

    1. Profile Photo

      Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
      24th June 2023, 3:04

      And honestly the thing i miss far more than the volume is the variety we used to get before everyone got forced into the same engine configuration.

      Up until the mandate for everyone to run a V10 in the early 2000s it was awesome been at a track and hearing so many vastly different sounds. Some were louder and others much quieter and all sounded different which from trackside especially was so much more fun and brought so much more character than has been the case after everyone was forced to do the same thing.

      https://youtube.com/watch?v=M4rFgHOgSfY&feature=share7

    2. Yellow Baron
      24th June 2023, 9:08

      Although I do agree with you, the majority of fans watching a race are watching it on the TV, and however FOM captures the sound it’s an awful job.

      I have never been to an F1 race but I know the intricacies of these hybrid engines from 2014 till now from watching fans trackside videos. They really are interesting to hear, albeit not with the high revving screams we used to get.

      (I don’t know for sure but I assume that higher revs don’t necessarily equate to more noise but more so tone and pitch. But in coming to this thought I’m thinking of road cars. Which is why I wonder if simply higher revving engines would give the sound many of us want.)
      For me it’s the efficiency of the engines as well. It’s seems to be that the more efficient it is the less raw it sounds. Take indycars V6 turbos for example and the old V6 turbos from a few decades ago

      Anyway with the current hybrids, although improved perhaps since 2014, FOM still does a bad job of capturing these sounds
      even onboards, and then it’s further compounded by commentary. Understandably they want their commentary to be heard but I feel that the commentary volume is too loud, ESPECIALLY for these engines.

      A slight tangent here but when did commentary stop being commentary? It should be called dictation now, they just don’t stop talking!!

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjo8BEku080
      This channel has a few great sounds and sights from that weekend (AUS 2022)

      1. MichaelN
        24th June 2023, 20:43

        A slight tangent here but when did commentary stop being commentary? It should be called dictation now, they just don’t stop talking!!

        A lot of broadcasters come up the ranks through radio, and they never stop talking because that’s all radio is.

        Then there’s the fact that every F1 race is some kid’s first. People who have seen hundreds of GPs might roll their eyes at some of the commentary, but there are also many people watching who lap it up as the ultimate insight into the way the race unfolds. Ideally there’d be a couple of commentators on F1TV that people could choose from, but I guess that’s too much effort.

      2. Profile Photo

        theRealMax (@millionus)
        25th June 2023, 10:40

        That video is pure joy.

  4. Profile Photo

    Jere (@jerejj)
    24th June 2023, 5:37

    Enough many different circuits have already been raced on this season for Red Bull’s true strength to have become evident earlier unless people want to point out that they haven’t necessarily always been driving full on in the races, which explains some gaps.

    Another bum image, lol.

    I appreciate COTD’s view, but overall, tend to agree more with the above posts.

    1. Profile Photo

      Jere (@jerejj)
      25th June 2023, 6:33

      I forgot to add yesterday about the 2018 French GP’s 5th anniversary.

  5. Mayrton
    24th June 2023, 12:08

    Why is F1 academy not set up more inclusive? Seems a missed opportunity the likes of the average Ferrari race strategy.

  6. grat
    25th June 2023, 7:40

    Oh look. All the teams suddenly remembered they have female engineers just in time for International Women in Engineering Day.

    I realize you’re supposed to highlight them on this particular day, but it would be nice if they got some mention the other 365.24 days of the year.

    1. S
      25th June 2023, 9:39

      Would be nice if they were treated equally and got the exact same amount of ‘mentions’ the guys do.
      Better still, forget completely which gender they are. It really doesn’t matter.

  7. Robert Henning
    25th June 2023, 14:04

    The Red Bull will eat the competition alive in tracks where you need a low downforce setup.

    I can see them do Silverstone in a low downforce setup and then fly off into the distance.

Comments are closed.