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Aston Martin focusing on positives despite late 2023 slide
Aston Martin went from being Red Bull’s closest Formula 1 challenger to finishing fifth in the 2023 constructors’ championship but the season should not be considered a disappointment, according to team principal Mike Krack.
Bahrain saw Fernando Alonso pick up a podium behind the Red Bull pair, kicking off a run of six podiums in the first eight races. On three occasions across the season Alonso finished second to Max Verstappen, but the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren moved clear of Aston Martin, something Krack says was out of his team’s hands.
“No, there is no disappointment of that because you need to be realistic about where you are,” Krack said. “We started the year in a very good position but we also need to analyze why have we been in that position.
“If you really analyze that and be realistic about where you are, then it cannot be a disappointment, because we were surprised -- and I think everybody was surprised -- that some teams were not coming out of the starting blocks as we had expected. Then, by developing, they came back to their more natural position.
"That is something we cannot influence with the firepower we have, so from that point of view I think it would be wrong to say this [2023] car is a disappointment. It is something that we know we need to work on of the future if we want to become a stronger team, but I think it would not be correct to put this as a disappointment.”
Aston Martin moved into a new factory during the course of the 2023 season and Krack says it means there is no area that the team is now obviously needing to address outside of building a quicker car.
“If you want to make progress over the grid, you have to look mainly at the fact that these days everybody has safe cars, reliable cars and is very strong in operations," he said. "The differentiator is the performance, and you have to focus on the areas that make the performance; this is an area where no team is stopping. You have to really develop in these departments and make them better, make them stronger and make them more efficient.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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