Mike Krack admits the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team have not performed to the level they had hoped in recent races, but they are not giving up on the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season and have more updates to implement on their AMR23.
Aston Martin, and in particular Fernando Alonso, began the season strongly with multiple podium finishes, but top six results have been hard to come by for either the Spaniard or team-mate Lance Stroll, with the team having scored only six points across the past three races.
This has seen the Silverstone-based team slip from second in the Constructors’ Championship to fourth behind both the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team and Scuderia Ferrari, and they have the resurgent McLaren F1 Team looking to demote them even further before the season concludes in Abu Dhabi next month.
“The last few races have been challenging in terms of performance, operations, and reliability,” said Krack, the Team Principal at Aston Martin. “We need to be at 100% with our operations and our reliability if we are to add performance and do a better job for Lance and Fernando.
“Lance was forced to park the car with the rear wing issue, while Fernando picked up four points. Being honest, that’s not the level we expect of ourselves. We need to keep our heads down and keep fighting.
“Continuous development has been our philosophy all year. There are still some developments in the pipeline that will appear on the car all the way to Abu Dhabi – and with stable regulations for next year, these developments will feed into the new car.
“So we will not take our foot off the gas at all. We will keep pushing and we want to conclude the season strongly.”
Krack says Aston Martin will do everything they can to ensure they at least maintain their fourth place in the standings across the final six races of the season, and he knows the team are continuing to learn and grow together.
“Yes, at least fourth. That’s the objective with six races to go,” Krack insisted. “We are currently fourth in both championships and we should not forget we have had some amazing results and seven podiums this year.
“With every race we continue to learn and grow together as a team. We are in a fierce battle with some exceptional competitors, but we will not go down without a fight.”
The Formula 1 season continues this weekend with the Qatar Grand Prix, and Krack says the team could expect the same kind of performance as they showed last time out in Japan where Alonso could only manage an eighth-place finish.
“It is nice to be back racing in Qatar,” Krack added. “There is a mix of medium-speed and high-speed corners – similar in many ways to Suzuka – so we can expect similar fortunes, to be honest.
“We will take the learnings from Singapore and Japan and try to take a step forward. Everybody in the team can play their part: we all have to dig deep if we want to turn the tide.”
