Photo credit: Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team
On Sunday it was Fernando Alonso who brought the Aston Martin to the podium once again, as the AMR23 proves again to be competitive and able to challenge the top teams.
During the chaotic Australian Grand Prix, the Spaniard found himself chasing Hamilton’s Mercedes just before the second red flag. After the race was asked to Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack if in his opinion Alonso could have got him:
“I am not sure, it is very difficult to pass here and due to the first red flag everyone was on the C2 and everybody was trying to go do the end so everybody was just managing to get there, to get to the end, so I don’t think we had a proper representation of the true pace of all the cars because they were all knowing that to try to pass you required maybe something extra from your tyres.
“Then you don’t know where you are going to go so I think everybody from the beginning to the end was managing.”
Alonso and Stroll were beaten in qualifying by the Mercedes duo, and the Spaniard finished behind Hamilton on Sunday after a tremendously close fight before the late red flags.
Krack was questioned regarding the close fight with the Brackley-based squad all weekend.
“Yes we have seen before that we speak about very small margins, a gust here or a little oversteer here can decide the position.
“I think in qualifying two, we had a little bit of the upper hand and in qualifying three it flipped around but this happens when you have so small margins, it can happen.
“All in all it is the situation that we are in and we have to be maximum at all times, 100% to get the best out of it.”
In terms of points across an event in 2023, Australia was the best weekend for the Silverstone team, that is currently ahead of both Mercedes and Ferrari in the Constructors’ Standings. Asked how strong is the car compared to both teams, Krack concluded:
“This is also something when I say we need to wait a couple of races, you cannot say after one race you are here or there, you need a bit more data samples to really understand where you are.
“You saw in Bahrain we were very competitive against many teams, in Jeddah it was OK and here we had a proper fight so if you look at all the data or take all the data and look where you are, again you will find that the margins are very close.”
