For the fourth time in the five Sunday races this year, Fernando Alonso stood on the third step of the podium as his impressive start to life at Aston Martin continues.
The Spaniard now holds a 19-point advantage over Lewis Hamilton in the Drivers’ Championship in the battle for P3 behind the dominant Red Bulls at present.
His podium was also crucial in the Constructors’ Championship as Aston Martin kept P2 ahead of Mercedes. However, only six points separate the teams heading to Imola after Stroll failed to score.
Speaking post-race, Aston Martin team principal says the feeling of podiums must never feel normal and that hard graft is always required against quality opposition.
“No, no, no. Feet on the ground,”
“If you are not 100% in all areas at all times, then there is no podium.”
The top 7 cars started on the medium tyre for the race in Miami. Race winner Max Verstappen and his engineering team decided to go for hards in the opening stint from P9 on the grid.
Krack believes it was the correct and safe call to go with mediums when starting P2 on the grid like Alonso did.
“That [mediums] was the more logical strategy because you want to have no downside on the first laps, and you have always the risk with a Safety Car later in the race. Then if you are on the hard — on the wrong tyre — that’s very dangerous.”
Krack said the team was taking a look at the winning strategy post-race, but he once again reiterated that making the safe choice is the best course of action at present.
“Well, this [hard-medium strategy] is something that we are looking into now. I think Max [Verstappen] would have won with any strategy, to be honest,” Krack continued.
“But it’s something that we look into following the race, ‘What could we have done different?’
“I think this was probably the safer strategy. For us as a team it’s also the right approach to go for the safer strategy at this time.”
Aston Martin allowed Ferrari to perform the undercut on them. Carlos Sainz was shadowing Alonso very closely during the first stint on mediums, and he boxed at the end of lap 19.
Although Sainz got the undercut, Alonso rejoined closely behind him following his only stop six laps later. The 32-time Grand Prix winner quickly pounced on the Ferrari and overtook him easily on lap 27. The Silverstone-based team had far superior pace on the hards.
Photo credit: Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team
Sainz also came out behind Hamilton and Hülkenberg after he boxed. Explaining Aston’s thinking to run longer, Krack said avoiding getting stuck behind drivers who started on hards was vital.
“First of all, we wanted to follow our plan and not get rushed into undercuts because you are building a tyre advantage, or maybe you have to,” said Krack.
“We must not forget that we didn’t know how long we could go with the hards at this stage. We did not want to overcommit — and also we did not want to box into traffic because then you run into dirty air and overwork the tyres.
“I think it was a great call from the strategy team to say ‘let’s stay out’. We still had pace on these tyres, and I think it paid out later in the race.”
