Krack: 2025 an opportunity to show Newey what we can do

Aston Martin Chairman Lawrence Stroll succeeded in signing Newey, who left Red Bull Racing after almost 20 years and will become a shareholder as well as the technical boss of the British team.

Newey will be joining his new team in March 2025, which means he will not have any impact until 2026, when the new aero and power unit regulations kick in.

All the people at Aston Martin - staff, drivers, and management - must be counting the days until Newey, the most successful F1 designer, joins and they start reaping the benefits from his experience.

"Very hard. Absolutely," was Krack's answer when asked how challenging it is to balance between the forthcoming arrival of Newey and the team's current challenges to deliver a fast car for 2025.

But he added: "I think we should also use ‘25 as an opportunity to show Adrian what we can do. I think that should serve as a motivation for all of us."

When asked about the risks of some team staff slacking down as they await the F1 design guru's arrival, the Aston Martin boss warned: "If I identify that one, it will not be for long."

The arrival of Newey will undoubtedly require massive preparation in order to get him integrated within the team and make him fully operational as soon as possible, but Krack admits there will be limitations in terms of communicating with the British engineer before he joins.

"I don't know," he answered when asked how much of a discussion he can have with Newey from now till he joins in 2025.

"I need to check with our legal department. I think you need to be very careful with these things. You know, we do not want to get into legal [matters] going forward. That would just not feel right," he explained.

After a decent start of the 2023 F1 season, when Aston Martin delivered podium finishes with Fernando Alonso, the team dropped down the order as they could not keep up with the development pace of their rivals, while 2024 was also a tough campaign so far.

"We are not where we want to be," Krack lamented. "Our target was clearly to close the gap to the top four teams.

"At the beginning of the season, we knew that we were around the fifth-fastest at the time, and the target was to close that gap.

"We have not managed that. Others have more caught up than we have closed. So that is the reality and that is something we have to understand and address," he concluded.

Aston Martin are currently fifth in the 2024 F1 constructors' championship with 86 points.