Even though Aston Martin dropped out of the battle for second place in the F1 constructors’ championship, team principle Mike Krack is certain that this year’s season is in no way a “disappointment.”
Photo Credit: Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team
In the first eight races since of 2023, Aston Martin’s AMR23 roared, with Fernando Alonso claiming six podiums and teammate Lance Stroll finishing in the top 6 on three occasions after breaking both of his wrists in preseason.
But as the year went on, Aston Martin fell further and further behind as Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren displaced them, ultimately finishing fifth in the Constructors’ Championship championship.
Aston Martin has recently admitted they implemented an ambitious strategy for in-season development, which partially backfired, causing it to fall behind and only seeing rare success towards the end of the campaign, like Alonso’s third place finish in the Brazilian GP.
Krack shared some background on the campaign by saying, “There’s no disappointment, you need to be realistic about where you are.
“We started the year in a very good position, but we also need to analyse why we were in that position. If you do that and be realistic about where you are, then it (the season) cannot be a disappointment.
“We were surprised, and I think everybody was surprised, that some teams did not come out of the starting blocks as was expected.
As the season went on, Ferrari improved their tyre degradation struggles on race day, but it was McLaren who made the biggest gains with a series of sizeable updates that transformed the MCL60.
“But by developing, they came back to their, let’s say, more natural position, which is something you cannot influence with the firepower we had.
“It is something we know we need to work on for the future if we want to become a stronger team, but it would be incorrect to say it was a disappointment,” he added.
With more attention focused on the team and a stronger emphasis on running at the head of the pack, Aston Martin unexpectedly found itself under the intense spotlight as a result of their excellent start into the 2023 Formula One season.
To Krack, his team would not have been exposed to such severe scrutiny if they had only been a midfield runner from the beginning of the season.
“We said in the beginning, after two or three races, that we were fighting in a completely different league of teams who are used to development races much more,” he said.
“At the top, it is a much harsher development race going on.
“We knew it was going to be a hard fight, and we confirmed it was going to be hard.
“It is probably easier to do this development when you are running in the midfield than when you’re running more at the front.”
