Aston Martin is having the best start to the season in the team’s history in 2023 since the Silverstone-based team first competed under the Jordan name in 1991. Fernando Alonso gave the squad three podium finishes in the first three races.
In the World Championship, they are currently in second place behind Red Bull with 65 points – and thus ahead of the “heavyweights” Mercedes and Ferrari. But does Aston Martin have a chance of defending this position in the world championship until the end of the season?
“We always have to be at the maximum, 100 percent [geben]to get the best out of it,” says team boss Mike Krack, who emphasizes that the gaps in Formula 1 are “very narrow” this year. This also applies to the chasing field behind Red Bull.
“There’s this big midfield where it’s basically about one, two or three tenths. I think it’s similar in our situation with Ferrari and Mercedes, depending on the track, depending on the layout,” said Krack, who explains , there will be shifts from race to race.
“It’s clear that Red Bull are the fastest,” he says. Behind them, Aston Martin was “Best of the Rest” in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, most recently in Australia Fernando Alonso finished behind Lewis Hamilton and thus a works Mercedes for the first time.
Krack doesn’t want to ‘draw too many conclusions’
Krack doesn’t think that means much, though. He explains: “We have to wait a few races. You can’t tell after a race whether you’re here or there, you need a little more data to really understand where you are.”
After all: Even if you ended up just behind Mercedes in Melbourne, Krack emphasizes that you were at the front and “competitive” on “three tracks with three different characteristics”. And that makes him “confident” for the next races.
Because the upcoming routes are sometimes “very different,” he recalls. “We have Baku with huge straights and then Monaco [quasi] without straights”, he gives two examples for the coming races in April and May.
And because the routes are so different and the distances between the teams are so small, there will certainly be minor shifts. You have to be “careful” about “drawing too many conclusions from a race.”
Big leaps like 2022 are probably out of the question
Basically, he sees Aston Martin well prepared – also thanks to the updates that should come to the car in the coming weeks. Most recently in Australia they didn’t do any upgrades, but that should change in the next races.
“We have [in Melbourne] tried out a few little things on Friday to get a better understanding of our car before we rushed off in one direction or the other. I think we know roughly what we have to do,” explains Krack.
At the same time, the team boss also makes it clear that one should not expect such a steep development curve as in 2022. “We started this year on a better footing, so it won’t be as easy as last year,” said Krack.
Last year, the AMR22 was one of the worst cars in the field at the start of the season. After the first three races, Aston Martin was the only team still without points in last place in the championship. Twelve months later, one is a regular podium contender.
Krack warns: Standing still is a step backwards!
The further development of the car is correspondingly more difficult. “But we have to make progress if we want to stay where we are. Because even if we don’t do anything, we will go backwards,” says the team boss.
One point that needs to be improved is the top speed, for example. “I think we have a great car. But the Red Bull is much faster on the straights and that’s something we definitely have to work on,” emphasizes Krack.
Because it is also clear that the team does not just want to establish itself as an opponent of Mercedes and Ferrari in the long term. At some point you want to fight for victories with Red Bull at the front. Team owner Lawrence Stroll has never made a secret of this.
“Of course he’s glad we took a step, but that’s not enough for his ambitions,” reveals Krack about Stroll, adding: “The good thing about Lawrence is that you know where you stand. He wants more, and we will have to deliver more.”
The start of the 2023 season was at least a good start.