Photo credits: Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team
Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack spoke to media post-race in Austin about the pace shown by his team, Alonso’s DNF and a missed opportunity at Circuit of The Americas.
Aston Martin realised prior to race day that they had taken their car in the wrong direction hence their decision to take both cars out of parc fermé. Having done so, both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll started from the pit lane.
Lance Stroll finished P9 on track and would be promoted to P7 following the disqualification of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. Stroll’s Spanish two-time F1 Drivers’ Champion, Fernando Alonso, told reporters he was happy for his teammate as Stroll “deserved to have better weekends.”
Meanwhile, Alonso looked set to score unlikely points in Austin but instead had to retire from Sunday’s US Grand Prix with just 7 laps remaining.
Mike Krack explained to the media what the problem had been for Alonso on ‘a brutal track’.
“It’s very, very tough and there was one part of the floor…on the right that has just broken off half a metre in length,” Krack would then demonstrate to those in attendance approximately how long and how wide – unsurprisingly a DNF outcome.
As a result of Aston Martin having gone in the wrong direction with set-up (which is always a danger on a sprint weekend), the Silverstone-based racing outfit was playing catchup throughout. Having finally found some pace on track, Alonso was up to P9 before the floor damage saw him have to retire his AMR23.
On a weekend that saw McLaren leapfrog Aston Martin in the F1 Constructors’ Championship and create a 6-point gap, Alonso now has his fellow countryman Carlos Sainz just 12 points behind him in the F1 Drivers’ Championship and with 4 race weekends still to come. Mike Krack reflected on the errors made earlier in the weekend whilst also paying tribute to points for Stroll’s side of the garage.
“You have to accept that after three days of really hard work, there is a couple of smiling faces in the garage and this is also well deserved,” Krack stated. “The fact is that on Friday we should have done our homework. We didn’t do it and we had the consequences all over the weekend.”
Mike Krack explained how the situation in Austin was “another lesson learned” and indicated what his team will do in future to avoid such a scenario.
“Now, there is always the rule: don’t bring the upgrades to the Sprint weekend. Nevertheless, when you take the decision to do it you know what the risks are, then you cannot complain when it happen,”
The fact that the car showed such good pace, and the pair were in form of being double point scorers was not lost on the man leading Aston Martin as he admitted to journalists in attendance in Austin: “You have to also see what the missed opportunity might have been, and this is the reality.”
Points from a double pit lane start were far from expected and in the end looked like a fantastic decision. However, as Mike Krack reiterated to those questioning him: “We didn’t know that though when we took the decision…one of the things you know is that it will be very difficult to score if you start from the pitlane, especially with the pace we had yesterday. But obviously, now we know that was the right decision.”
Having returned to a different car spec for race day – the one used previously in Qatar – it remains to be seen if the performance the AMR23 showed prior to this with t“We didn’t know that though when we took the decision…one of the things you know is that it will be very difficult to score if you start from the pit lane, especially with the pace we had yesterday. But obviously, now we know that was the right decision.”ls finding form, it could be a costly deci sion in more ways than one.
