Mike Krack says Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team’s Monaco Grand Prix was far more complex than what it appeared on paper, but he was happy Sebastian Vettel was able to leave the principality with a point.
Vettel started ninth and finished tenth, while Lance Stroll made up four places from his starting position to finish fourteenth. However, Krack, the Team Principal at Aston Martin, says the result only tells one small part of the story.
Pre-race rain played havoc with proceedings and made strategy calls difficult, and it was down to whether drivers gambled on making the full wet Pirelli tyre last until slicks were an option, or whether they made the switch to intermediate tyres in between.
Both Aston Martin drivers made the switch to intermediates before moving onto the dry weather tyres, and Krack praised both drivers for their performances, with Vettel earning the team a point thanks to finishing within five seconds of Esteban Ocon, who had been penalised for contact with Lewis Hamilton earlier in the race.
“On paper you could describe our performance in the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix as follows: Sebastian lost one place from his P9 qualifying position to finish tenth in the race, and Lance gained four places from his P18 qualifying position to finish fourteenth in the race,” said Krack.
“The truth was much more complex, since rain played havoc with everyone’s plans and the result was an incident-packed, time-limited race in which the weather was the key until the dry-track restart after the lap-thirty red flag.
“Thereafter, Sebastian drove well to manage tyre wear, and was able to stay well within five seconds of [Esteban] Ocon, thereby converting his P11 on-track finishing position to P10 after Ocon’s five second penalty had been applied: a hard-earned World Championship point for us.
“Lance also did his best in difficult circumstances, but overtaking is practically impossible here so points were always going to be out of reach for him today.”
