Krack Confirms: Aston Martin Moves Up in F1 Pack

Aston Martin F1, led by Mike Krack, impressively competes with Mercedes and McLaren, showing strategic prowess and significant improvements in the latest races.

Mike Krack is pleased that Aston Martin F1, of which he is the director, was able to compete against Mercedes and a McLaren. Although he does not comment on Lance Stroll’s performance, who battled against the RBs and Haas, he acknowledges that the AMR24 was in the right pack.

“I think we can agree that we were not in no man’s land, and that’s a positive,” Krack stated. “You can overtake; we saw that you can pass in incredible places, even though I did not know you could get through in the Esses.”

“But you see that with a significant pace delta and tire delta, you can do it if you’re brave enough. So we did not seem to be in no man’s land. We were in the pack. We were ahead of the Mercedes.”

“So that’s very encouraging. But again, it’s just one piece of data. It’s easier to overtake in Bahrain than here. But we were never really threatened, let’s put it that way. We’ll see; it needs to be confirmed in the upcoming races.”

Aston’s boldness was rewarded by the conditions

Aston Martin feared that the heat would affect the tires, but everything went well so that the team experienced less degradation, even though they started on soft tires. Between the return of the clouds and the red flag that prevented the race from occurring at the hottest time, a disaster was avoided.

“We prayed for the clouds to come. And then they arrived! The interruption also helped. And also, when you start with soft tires, if you have an interruption or a slower race, it always helps to introduce them better.”

“On the other hand, we traditionally, or statistically, have a lot of safety cars at the start of the race, which allows the tires to run after the second or third lap. So these are strategic choices that were made.”

“Would we do the same thing? That’s a good question. I think you saw many cars that were surprised by the hard tires and also by the mediums, they held up very well. So yes, I think it’s hard to say.”

The team “learns” from its evolution

Asked about the effectiveness of the developments brought to Suzuka, Krack says more data analysis is needed: “We are looking at everything right now to try to understand and quantify. Again, it’s a data sample. And that’s something we need to find out.”

“I’ve said it before, the cars are complex, and sometimes you need a bit more time to really understand what you’ve changed. It hasn’t been easy with the lost session on Friday. So we are learning a lot about it.”

“Again, I don’t have all the numbers yet, we know how far off we were in the early races and it seems we have closed in a bit more now. That’s what we need to understand: how much is it? And where do we go from here?”