Mike Krack: “we’re victims of our own success”
The Aston Martin team is having a much more difficult season than in 2023. Relegated to fifth on the grid, it didn't play a leading role this year. For Mike Krack, the reason for this is that expectations were too high, and were not met.
The pressure is mounting within the Silverstone team. Despite more encouraging results recently, with points scored in the last three races, Aston Martin’s season remains cautious. After achieving podium finishes with Fernando Alonso last year, the team is struggling to compete at the front and is already more than 200 points behind Mercedes in the constructors’ championship.
Mike Krack, director of the Aston Martin team, says the problem lies not so much in the team’s performance, but rather in the high expectations generated at the beginning of the season. The team has improved over the years, but the ambitions were probably too high for a team still young and currently fifth in the championship, a position similar to that of last year.
« If you remove the podiums from last year and take a step back on the project, you say to yourself, “Wow, that’s real progress.” But when you take into account what actually happened, and which partly escapes our control, you create a level of expectation that is difficult to manage and maintain. In all the indicators we have, the team has progressed – except for the points. This is something you have to be realistic about and you can’t influence what your competitors do. »
For Krack, Aston Martin has progressed compared to previous years, but not sufficiently compared to its direct competitors, notably McLaren and Mercedes, who were in a delicate situation in 2023 and are now fighting for victories against Red Bull. This situation is frustrating for the team and for Fernando Alonso, who regrets that the team could not take advantage of the dip in form of the Austrian team.
« I think that last year, we were the best of the others, but Red Bull was unbeatable. Things have changed a bit and we were not there to seize the opportunity. We said repeatedly last year that we had to keep up, that we always had to track them down and that, when they had a chance, we had to seize the opportunity. »
« And when they started having problems, we were no longer there. So it is our fault if we were not able to keep up with this pace. » The double world champion regrets that the team was unable to keep up with the pace and seize the opportunities when the energy drink brand started experiencing problems. In 2023, they had achieved 8 podiums and had been mostly beaten only by Red Bull. This year, despite 7 victories missed by the Milton Keynes team, Aston Martin has not yet managed to step onto the podium.
With only 73 points scored since the start of the season, the Aston Martin team has 123 units less than the total from last season at the midseason break, despite having raced two more times. A tense period that is not really ready to end anytime soon, according to Alonso’s remarks, emphasizing that the team is already focused on next season.
« I don’t think, I don’t think there is anything major planned. So, it is more about understanding the weaknesses of the car, the parts we need to improve, but I think all the work will be done by 2025 – I am not expecting great progress in 2024. » For Aston Martin, it will therefore be necessary to show patience and hope that next year’s car can return to the top.
