Photo credit: Aston Martin Cognizant Aramco Formula 1 Team
Aston Martin have certainly moved up the grid since last year. With podiums being almost regular, the team is experiencing form that has not been seen since a few Team Silverstone rebrands ago.
However, the last few races have not been at the same level as earlier in the season. After a disappointing weekend in Austria, Aston Martin’s drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll finished in 7th and 14th respectively, albeit with the Canadian getting tangled with Pierre Gasly in the last few laps of the race and dropping places because of a 5-second penalty.
While Team Principal Mike Krack realises that the team has not performed as of late compared to the amazing start they had, he preferred to call this weekend “damage limitation”, highlighting that his drivers scored more than Ferrari to solidify their 3rd place in the Constructors’ Championship.
“Verdict is damage limitation. I would say we did not have the performance that we wanted to have on Saturday and Sunday. And to go away with scoring more points than Ferrari, I think you can call it damage limitation.”
Krack also took the time to realize that their recent form of podiums might have been great in the moment, but realized that it comes with hard times when the joy wears off.
“I always said you cannot have all the time podiums,” stated Krack. “We had six podiums in 10 races. I always said there will be also moments where it will be a bit more difficult. And we had now a race where we didn’t have the pace that we wanted to have.
“I think going into the race we said we need to rely on our strength today, which is I think is pitstops, race starts, execution, strategy. And it played out quite well. All these we could rely on today. And I think this allowed us to come home still with decent points.”
Photo Credit: Aston Martin Cognizant Aramco Formula 1 Team
Aston Martin may have been off the podium this time, but McLaren definitely took their place with an astounding performance by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. When asked if the Woking-based squad will prove to be a concern for the rest of the campaign, Krack explained that it’s up to time to see whether they can pose a threat.
“Concern is the wrong word. I think it confirms what I have always been saying, we need to be careful defining too quickly a pecking order. You will remember me saying this. So we have a swing up and down. We have seen in Austria, for example, Mercedes were quite down, in Barcelona, they were very strong. We were very strong in Canada, it’s not long ago, where we were fighting for the podium.
“So that is why I always say that we need to wait two, three or four tracks to realise or to be really sure about where the pecking order is. And I think we should maintain that.”
While the last few races haven’t been the best, Krack said that it’s time to see where they’re actually placed in the pecking order. With the next few races being extremely different in circuit types, he’ll then know where Aston Martin is truly placed.
Hungary and Spa before the summer break are vastly different venues.
“So like a rolling average, in engineering terms, where are we? I think then before the shutdown, we can say where we can have a better representation where we are, and this I think will allow us also to define from the race expectation where we have to go. I think we also need to consider really we have a lot of races coming that are very different characteristic to the previous ones.
“The calendar is such that you have the less downforce races in the beginning, depending on how you classify them, and there are more races to come down where maybe we can be better. These are all things that we have to see based on the analysis of the next three, I think.”
