Mike Crack: “Our relationship has strengthened” within the team after going through ups and downs
The links to redirect to other articles are not working. Eight podiums, five times more points than in 2022, and still fighting for fourth place in the constructor's championship, Aston Martin is having a better season than the previous year. However, the British team has experienced some low periods.
Aston Martin has made significant progress compared to the 2022 season. The team has scored 273 points, with one race left in the championship, 200 of which were earned by Fernando Alonso, nearly five times more than the previous season. The British team has also achieved eight podium finishes this year, all thanks to the Spaniard. Aston Martin is currently fifth in the constructors’ championship, 11 points behind McLaren and could still secure fourth place in the standings.
However, Aston Martin’s season is not linear. In the first eight races of the season, Alonso achieved six podium finishes and his worst result was a seventh place at the Spanish Grand Prix on June 4th. But between Canada and the Netherlands, that is over two months and four Grand Prix, Aston Martin did not secure a single podium. The same goes for the period between Zandvoort and Interlagos, another two-month wait with seven Grand Prix races.
Mike Krack, the Executive Director of Aston Martin, reflected on this season of ups and downs for Alonso and Stroll.
At first, I thought it was the honeymoon phase, but then we had difficult moments as a team and that shows the qualities of Fernando and Lance, because they were very complicated situations, there are several races, and the relationship has even strengthened. » Greetings to Mike Krack.
The two drivers are very constructive, they comment on the main issues but always from a constructive point of view. Always talking about facts, not emotions. It is a pleasure to see. We were not lost before, I think now it would be arrogant to say that we have solved everything. These cars are very complex and there is a lot to learn for us. I won’t say that we have understood everything, but we have learned a lot. Will there be other experiences in Abu Dhabi? Yes, he continues.
A challenging Grand Prix in Las Vegas
Aston Martin did not secure a second consecutive podium finish after Brazil, two weeks earlier. Mike Krack commented on this result where the team brought back 12 points, ten from Stroll who finished fifth, and two points from Alonso who finished ninth.
The key was to fully understand the tires and the strategy. We needed some luck at the start, but I believe that if we look at who had harder or softer tires, we can see that those who didn’t have two hard tires fell behind. He was surprised by the lack of grip. It was very delicate, I don’t know what happened with Lando Norris, but it is clear that the tire temperature was very low, explains the executive director of Aston Martin.
« I think the qualifications were difficult for many people. It was about getting the tires in the right operating window at the right time. Because you had the improved track, low temperatures, timing, and traffic management. It was better to create a gap so that these tires would be ready. But it surprised some people, the McLarens had a lot more pace than their grid position showed. On Friday, it didn’t really reflect the pace of the cars, but on Saturday, it did », concludes the Luxembourger.
