Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack has been putting his team’s recent dip in form into perspective, following an impressive start to 2023.
After finishing seventh in the 2022 Constructors’ standings, the Silverstone-based squad shocked the rest of the F1 fraternity when they emerged as runaway leaders Red Bull’s closest challengers at the start of this season, albeit at a distance.
A string of podium finishes for Fernando Alonso in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Miami and Monaco – where he narrowly missed out on pole position to Max Verstappen – was followed by a less than impressive showing in Spain, where he finished in seventh place, just behind teammate Lance Stroll.
The Spanish Grand Prix saw Aston Martin replaced by Mercedes as next in line behind Red Bull before Alonso returned to the rostrum with a second-place finish in Montreal.
However, since Canada, Aston Martin has failed to return to the podium as Mercedes, Ferrari and even McLaren have taken it in turns to be the best of the rest.
Despite this, Krack is keen to stress what the team has achieved so far this year, especially compared to where they were at the same point last season.
“I said it from the beginning of the season, but now after 11-12 races we have the opportunity to take a point, we have 10x more points than we had at this stage last time, we are P3 in the championship,” Krack said.
“So the expectations rise with the results but you must not also forget where you’ve come from, so for push, push, push for development, we have to realise we have made big steps and it is important to also zoom out and see what you have achieved,” he said.
But while Krack is happy overall with Aston Martin’s year-on-year progress, he admitted that he’d have liked the podium form to have continued a little while longer.
“I always said in the beginning of the year, when we had podium, podium, podium, I always said there would be more difficult times, and they came much quicker than we wanted them to come,” he said.
“But this is the reality of Formula 1, it’s very competitive, and as soon as other people are developing very hard you see a change in pecking order.”
Krack is well aware of the challenge that lies ahead for Aston Martin to keep pace with the team’s rivals in the ensuing development race, during and after the summer break.
“Just to stay where you are it needs an incredible amount of work, and it shows everyone is pushing very hard and flat out.”
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