New Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack admits joining such a rapidly-expanding team has been an overwhelming experience.

Krack joined Aston Martin from BMW and started work with the team on March 1, but had made previous visits to the Silverstone headquarters where major construction work is taking place. Returning to Formula 1 over a decade after his last role in the category, the German says the scale of the project has left him acknowledging a need to carefully identify areas to focus on as he settles in.

“Yes it is overwhelming, it has been,” Krack said. “I’ve been here a couple of times before my official start and just when you see this huge new building being built it is overwhelming, it has to be.

“I think you have to approach this in a humble way. You have to first come here and understand how this team is working, because we must not forget Team Silverstone is a great team. For all these years it always over-performed to its possibilities, and it’s important to find out where are the strengths in the team and where we can make it stronger, where we can improve on some of the weaknesses it’s having.

“But at the moment I have a lot of discussions with individuals – with team leaders, with department leaders – to understand how the team is run, how the system is operating. And it would be foolish to come here on the first day and try and turn everything upside down and rearrange (it). The team has a good record, it needs a couple of things to make the next steps, but it is not by turning everything upside down that we will manage that.

“So I’ll take a conservative approach there, try to learn as much as possible, try to bring my philosophy into it, try to bring my thinking into it, which is always positive teamwork because motivation comes by itself – although the people here are extremely motivated, you can believe me – so it’s a matter of channeling this properly.”

Krack believes his varied experience with BMW Motorsport puts him in a good place to lead Aston Martin as it targets championships in future.

“It’s always difficult to speak about your own strengths, but having been in engineering for very long, F1 but also out of F1 – FE, Hypercar – it gives you a very good overview about KPIs that are needed for different categories,” he said. “I think it is important if you are in a technical management role that you understand these KPIs and what is important to be successful on a technical side because Formula 1 is very technical and very advanced in terms of development.

“I think my strength is not in the engineering though, I think I manage to bring people together, to give them trust, to enable them, and I think I can manage to form teams that work well together. This is not a five-minute job, to have the individuals, because you can bring very very bright individuals and they never work well together, whereas sometimes it’s more important to have teamwork than the ultimate individuals.

“It’s this fine balance between having the good people and also having them together. Because team is everything, in F1, we know we have a large headcount and we all have to pull on the same side of the rope, playing for the same goal, everyone who is involved.

“So it is a matter of bringing them together, having the right spirit and having the right attitude. So I think in the past that helped me in my career, and the engineering background is something that enables you to really understand what’s happening and that you focus on the right areas.”