Although Aston Martin failed to win a race in the 2023 Formula 1 season, it managed to take the podium six times. Especially in the first part of the season, they drew the second fastest team image.
As the season progressed, Aston Martin dropped to the fifth fastest team. The reason for this is that the updates are not good enough and the performance of its competitors is increasing.
Aston Martin boss Krack said his team's results at the start of the year were also tied to the mistakes of the opponents.
Krack said: "That's a good point."
“I don't think we're performing extreme. I think others underperformed in the beginning.”
"When we look at the gap between us and the fastest, I can say that we have taken a good step towards them compared to last year."
"So we can see that we performed well, but despite the step we took, we didn't actually expect to accelerate enough to be second."
“I think it's a combination. I don't think we're performing extreme. Yes, we performed well but others underperformed as well.”
“As the season progressed, they picked themselves up and opened up a bit.”
“We were unable to close this gap. In fact, the difference has grown a bit.”
They got to the point where they only got 21 points in the last three races.
Krack said, “It's a struggle, of course. We know where we want to go. As you say, when you experience a 'fitness drop', it is very important how you create a team dynamic to deal with it.”
“For example, does everyone look very sad? Coincidentally, it was just before summer break and everyone looked a little tired, everyone was exhausted from the intensity.”
“After Britain I was really tired – more tired than I've ever been before. This shows you the intensity of the work. If you combine fatigue with low fitness, it's not a very good mix or a good cocktail."
“Therefore, I was very surprised to see the positive response from the team. It showed me that we are a really good team.”
“Keeping everyone in the race is a really tough job, but you have to let people get a little grumpy. Maybe they need it more now, that is to touch and support the shoulder, much more than we did well.”
"So I'm trying to get a feel for who needs it and who doesn't." said.
Krack's statements show that Aston Martin's results at the start of the season are not entirely dependent on their own performance. The mistakes of the competitors also seem to play an important role in these results.