The 2023 season had started in the best way for Aston Martin, imposing themselves at the top level and finishing on the podium six times in the first eight races with Fernando Alonso. Yet in the second part of the championship, the Silverstone-based team has slipped down.
What had started as a battle with Mercedes and Ferrari for second place in the constructors’ standings is now a fight for fourth with McLaren, with Aston currently ahead by just 49 points now. It’s a gap that could be recovered soon.
As a matter of fact McLaren are delivering a strong resurgence: from starting the season at the back of the field to gain a double podium at the Japanese GP, ahead of the Ferrari and Mercedes cars.
Photo credit: Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team
Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack has revealed that the beginning of the slump has to be traced to when other teams have started bringing several upgrade packages to increase their performance. On their side, Aston Martin brought a floor update at the Canadian GP, but it didn’t work as hoped. From Krack’s point of view, the team has been out-developed.
Despite the current situation the team principal has shown support towards his team, strongly believing they can still fight and hold on to the fourth place ahead of McLaren.
“It’s a hard fight” – Krack said to the media following the Japanese GP – “I think we need to look at the upcoming races, we need to deliver the maximum in terms of reliability, which we have not done [in Suzuka].
“We had one car at the finish, we have to have the best possible operation, no real mistakes on the operations and focus on ourselves we can not influence what they’re doing.
“There are some sprints, I think we will have some rain, probably. So it’s going to be long and hard.
“I’m always confident. But we need to be better in terms of reliability. We need to add performance.”
Krack added he believes that the gap between Red Bull and Aston Martin over the course of the season hasn’t grown exponentially, but it is rather the fact that other teams have slotted in between them.
“I think it’s probably that others have filled the gap [between us and Red Bull], more than the gap has got massively bigger.
“We would have liked to have seen more performance, but there is still some to come, so I’m confident that we can close the gap a little bit.”
