Mike Krack focuses on reliability and safety for 2024
Aston Martin finished 5th in the 2023 championship. The team has already targeted its major improvements in preparation for 2023.
Throughout the championship, Aston Martin performed well from a financial point of view. The British team secured a solid 5th place in 2023, scoring a total of 280 points. After spending several seasons stagnant at the lower end of the championship, Aston Martin found itself neck and neck for the top spots several times. For comparison, Lawrence Stroll’s team collected 225 more points than the previous season. In this regard, Aston Martin has completely succeeded in its season.
However, some points leave a bitter aftertaste. During the first part of the season, the English garage almost systematically, thanks to Fernando Alonso, found itself in the top five places. However, the development of the single-seater was not successful, unlike his teammates. Aston Martin has therefore gradually retreated from 2nd place in the championship to 5th position over the course of the year.
Reinforce reliability
The entire Aston Martin team is more satisfied with the progress seen in one year. The garage plans to use the lessons of 2023 and the mistakes made to improve its competitiveness for 2024. « The team generally executed their weekends well, and in the past, we were very well known for that », explained Tom McCullough during a press conference. « Now, we are obviously trying to design and develop a car to compete at the front. We had a rear wing at Suzuka, with a manufacturing issue that was failing, the powertrain and the exhaust problem at Djeddah. These are the things that must not happen again if we want to fight for the top spots. We need to have perfect weekends, race after race. »
The British engineer believes that these improvements come through advances in terms of reliability and handling. The two drivers regularly complained of understeering this season. Recently, Lance Stroll also confided he hadn’t been comfortable in this single-seater for much of the season. « We must reach the standard of Red Bull in terms of reliability », affirmed Tom McCullough. « We must not only focus on one area. There are many aspects where we need small margins to be better. If we give our drivers good cars, they will get us good results. »
Optimize multiple domains
The entire team of engineers at Aston Martin knows where the team needs to progress. The three main areas of improvement have already been targeted: safety, reliability and optimization of race results. « On an operational level, if we can’t be at 100%, we won’t be able to achieve maximum performance », said Mike Krack. « We need to ensure that this box is checked, and we have not succeeded several times this year, but we know we need to do things right. »
Another area of necessary improvement for Aston Martin is Lance Stroll’s consistency. The Canadian driver had started the season with a wrist injury, which dampened his start. However, over the course of the year, the Aston Martin driver was greatly challenged. Unlike his teammate, he did not achieve any podium finishes and fought too little to finish in the top five. Over the course of 2023, Fernando Alonso earned 132 more points than his teammate. The Spaniard earned approximately 73.6% of Aston Martin’s points.
Aston Martin’s progression for 2024 goes through the three main sectors identified by Mike Krack and the consistency of Lance Stroll.
