Aston Martin has put itself in a good position over the past two races to finish seventh in the Constructors’ Championship. For a long time, Sebastian Vettel’s racing team was only second to last, but thanks to 20 points in Singapore and Suzuka, Haas and AlphaTauri were able to get past them.
Even sixth place for Alfa Romeo is well within reach: only seven points are missing and the team has only collected one point in the past nine races.
According to team boss Mike Krack, the latest results have been a great motivational boost for the team, which, however, must not let up now: “Self-confidence is not everything,” he says. “You also need a fast car. We don’t achieve much with self-confidence alone.”
“We know where we are with our car. We’ve made some progress over the year, but in a normal race we would certainly have problems finishing sixth,” said Krack. “We have to be realistic. There are still four races to go and if we can keep scoring points, then there’s a chance we can still make up a position.”
“But,” he continues to warn. It also works the other way around: “If one of our opponent teams scores massively, then we could also lose a position.” Aston Martin is currently eleven points ahead of Haas and AlphaTauri, who are fighting for eighth place with the same number of points.
“So there are four races, that’s still a long way, and we have to continue to show good performances,” said the team boss, who is encouraged by the latest results: “In the last twelve races we scored ten times. I think you can see that we are on the right track.”
Switching to Intermediates is key
In Suzuka, the team benefited from a bold strategic decision when Sebastian Vettel was brought in as the first pilot on intermediates after the restart. Only Williams did that with Nicholas Latifi, who was rewarded with his first points of the season.
“We had talked about it. We had time to discuss it, how do we go about it?” says Krack about the strategy. “And then we decided that together. Ultimately, the driver had to make the final decision because we don’t see all the track conditions. He had the last word and we were ready.”
“And I think that was key, but also that we were able to overtake Latifi in the pit stop because otherwise we wouldn’t be in front of Fernando [Alonso] reached the goal. Basically, these two decisions were crucial,” says Krack.
Is Aston Martin the end of the season?
For the team boss, Suzuka was Vettel’s best performance of the 2022 season alongside Monaco, Baku and Canada. “But this one stands out again because he gave it a little something extra that the car might not have.”
Aston Martin will also need that if you want to catch up with Alfa Romeo, especially since the remaining routes have little in common with the routes on which Aston Martin was good. “The next races are all very similar in terms of characteristics,” says Krack.
“They’re not like the circuits in Baku, Singapore and Monaco, so it will be more difficult for us than those races.” Despite this, he remains hopeful: “It could rain in Sao Paulo and we also have a sprint in Sao Paulo. So there are still some possibilities. And there isn’t a track that we think would be really bad for us. Look let’s do it.”