After a subpar result at the 2023 British Grand Prix, Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack has put the race down to ‘damage limitation’ for the Silverstone-based team.
The team’s star performer Fernando Alonso finished P7 last Sunday, behind both Red Bulls yet again. Also behind both Mercedes and the resurfaced McLaren, leaving the team in green somewhat behind on the performance charts.
After the British GP, Krack had this to say: “To come away from our home race at Silverstone with six points is a reasonable return from a weekend where we were lacking the pace to compete at the front. Fernando’s race was pretty straightforward, and we optimised the timing of his switch to the Soft tyres under the Safety Car.
“It was a case of damage limitation and Fernando had to defend hard in the closing stages to secure seventh place. Lance raced hard today. He was pushing hard to get into the top 10 in the final stages, but the contact with Pierre [Gasly] ultimately dropped him down the final order.
“The result consolidated our third place in the Championship and we increased our advantage over Ferrari. We will work hard as a team to return to a more competitive weekend in Budapest in a couple of weeks,” explained the team boss.
Krack: I always said you cannot have all the time podiums
With the veteran driver Alonso nowhere near the top spots in recent races, Krack commented: “I always said you cannot have all the time podiums. We had six podiums in 10 races. I always said there will be also moments where it will be a bit more difficult. And we had now a race where clearly on Saturday, we didn’t have the pace that we wanted to have.”
When asked about McLaren and how they may cause some concern by being back in the ‘fight’, the 51-year-old TP responded: “Concern is the wrong word. I think it confirms what I have always been saying, we need to be careful defining too quickly a pecking order. You will remember me saying this. So we have a swing up and down.
“We have seen in Austria, for example, Mercedes were quite down, in Barcelona, they were very strong. We were very strong in Canada, it was not long ago when we were fighting for the podium. I think it will be a very respectable season compared to where we come from, and what our targets for the season were. But we will not give up now and let it go,” Krack concluded.
After doing much of the beating since their revival this season, being beaten by three teams, including McLaren, is surely something going to hurt their plans to challenge for any future podiums.
Aston Martin currently are third in the 2023 F1 Constructors’ World Championship, on 181 points so far, and behind both Mercedes and Red Bull.
