Adam Cooper F1

Krack: says Aston still needs time to make steps with AMR24

Aston Martin Formula 1 team principal Mike Krack is confident that the Silverstone outfit can still make progress this year, but he admits that time is the biggest challenge.

Krack says that Aston knows what it has to improve, with Barcelona – where Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll finished 12^th and 14^th – highlighting a weakness in long corners.

However, Krack concedes that the busy 2024 schedule means that races will continue to slip by before the issues that hamper the AMR24 can be improved.

“It is a reflection of where we are,” he said after the Spanish GP. “Barcelona as a track is unforgiving. You know after Barcelona where you are, and we have seen it today, and we have to work hard to fix it.

“You have now five races in six weeks, and we have had quite a lot of understanding after Monaco, Imola, Canada as well, where we scored 14 points by the way, with the same car. And it’s about fixing them.

“You have no time. That’s the main problem at the moment. So we have to hang on like this, get the best out of the car each weekend, and bring these parts as quick as possible.”

Alonso said in Spain that he expects the Austrian and British races to be “painful” ahead of updates that will improve the car before the summer break.

“I share his optimism, but also I have to share the optimism,” said Krack. “The results are encouraging, and it’s just about the time that until we have everything.

“This is a continuous process. It is not like from one day to the next, you say, ‘Oh, this is it.’ This is something that a lot of people are working on, and a lot of people are analysing.

“And you come to conclusions, and you go to another race. You adjust your conclusions, because you see, ‘Ah it’s maybe not like that.’ So, this is a continuous process.”

He added: “We have, clearly, a better understanding than we had before. That is also what makes us confident looking forward.”

Krack pointed out that just a few weeks ago Aston was at the same level as the currently resurgent Mercedes team.

“If you see Mercedes has been on our level at the start of the season for a couple of races, and now they are with the top guys,” he said. “So you can see it’s possible, but it is not automatic. You have to work hard, and bring the steps to make it happen.”

“They were in the same position at the start of the year. They were in our competitive level for the first three, four races, I think. And they made steps from there. So we have all the objective data where we can clearly see the difference that they have made in terms of lap time performance. So it is possible.”

However Krack did not want to put a timeline on when the AMR24 will improve.

“It’s easy to make a prediction,” he said. “It’s easy to say now it will be three races, it will be seven. Bringing new parts means also you have to understand them again. This is also stuff that takes time. You see, you have seen Mercedes when they brought the upgrades, it took them maybe one, two three races to be at the top, but they were on the podium today.

“So I think they have clearly made a big step forward. Now, this is a good team. We know that from the past. So it shows us, together with what McLaren has done last year and McLaren has done this year, that it is possible.”

He continued: “The development is not always a straight line. You develop your car in a certain direction, then on the track, you discover that there is going to be other issues, and that you have to understand.

“With the intensity of the calendar week-on-week, you have to perform, and week-on-week, you improve your understanding. And sometimes it takes you maybe a little bit longer.”

Krack also stressed that the team itself is still developing its processes.

“When we zoom out we see we are still a team in the build,” he said. “We have a nice facility, nice offices, but there is still a lot of building going on, and also the process of understanding how your development goes needs to improve.

“So all-in-all, I think you know what is important in such a situation is, keep calm, focus on your issues, and work on bringing them. And if there is a lot of races in between, the situation that we have now, you have to go through and make the best of the package you have.

“Which I think in Canada, you can see it is possible to do. If circumstances allow, you can still score a chunk of points with the same car.”

Esteban Ocon knew his fight wasn’t with Piastri and McLaren in Spain

Esteban Ocon told Oscar Piastri “don’t try anything silly” at the start of the Spanish GP because he was not planning to keep the McLaren driver behind.

Ocon and Piastri started in eighth and ninth places, with the Australian having failed to set a time in Q3 due to track limits and a off-track moment.

Given that Lando Norris was on pole with the other McLaren Ocon accepted that there was no point in trying to hold up the potentially much faster Piastri.

At the start Piastri duly went round the outside at Turn 3, with Ocon backing off slightly to make it easier for the Australian.

“I told him I was going to let him go anyway, because he was going to be quicker than us the whole race,” said Ocon when asked by this writer about the pass. “I said, ‘Don’t try anything silly at the start. I’ll let you go afterwards.’

“And, yeah, that was not our fight today. It was not with him. It I thought was not going to be with Sergio [Perez], but he was close. So maybe we need to rethink who we are fighting next time.”

Ocon eventually finished 10^th, having also been passed by Perez’s three-stopping Red Bull in the latter stages.

The Frenchman reported during the race that his Alpine was lacking grip and was “all over the place”.

He believed after the race that the car might have suffered some damage, although it’s understood that the team detected only a minor downforce loss.

“We need to investigate if that is the case,” said Ocon. “We picked up some debris or something, because there was no contact.

“It was such a quiet race, there was no fighting. I was just falling back the whole time. So, yeah, very positive day for us, because on those kinds of days earlier in the year, we would have been last, not inside the points.

“Clearly the car was super hard to drive, a lot of sliding, a lot of oversteer, and not where we wanted to be.”

Asked how early in the race the problems started Ocon said: “To be honest, it never felt great. I don’t know from when it was exactly, but there is clearly something that didn’t go right for us this race.

“We will dig into some of the differences that we saw, and hopefully come with some answers for next week, because it’s a triple header as well. So, yeah, it wasn’t a great one. It’s funny to say, but damage limitation in terms of result.”

The Alpine team was surprised by the pace of the A524 in Spain, with both Ocon and team mate Pierre Gasly making Q3 and scoring points.

“We have some clues,” said Ocon. “I think if it’s working in the next three, we should know why it is. But to be honest, it was very unexpected to be that competitive here. And, yeah, that’s still something that we need to make sure we understand.”

Leclerc wasn’t happy with the way Sainz passed him in Spain

Charles Leclerc says he didn’t understand what he called an “unnecessary” passing move by Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz in the early stages of the Spanish GP.

The two drivers were running fifth and sixth positions when Sainz swept past at Turn 1 at the start of the fourth lap, with the pair making light contact.

Leclerc made his displeasure known over the team radio and explained after the race that both drivers had been told to take it easy and save their tyres in the early laps.

He indicating that Sainz had not stuck to the plan and that he was perhaps trying to make an impression in the week that his future looks set to be decided.

“We had a clear strategy at the beginning of the race with the team to both save tyres to attack later on,” he said.

“However, Carlos, on that lap, didn’t do any saving in Turn 14, and of course, had an opportunity to overtake me in Turn 1, which is a bit of a shame, because we lose time in between us.

“I damaged my front wing because of Carlos making the turn, not seeing that I was in the inside, and that makes our race more difficult. But it wouldn’t have changed significantly the end result.”

Expanding on the incident he said: “I didn’t understand the point of doing that when it was clearly stated before the race that we had to save in this part of the race.

“So it’s a bit unnecessary, but I also understand that I guess it’s his home race, and it’s also an important moment of his career.

“So I guess he wanted to do something a bit spectacular, but I probably wasn’t the right person to do that with.”

Later the positions were reversed after Sainz switched to hard tyres and Leclerc was on the more favourable soft for the final stint. They finished fifth and sixth, with Leclerc right on the tail of George Russell at the flag.

“When you look how close we finished with George in front there’s always things we can do better,” he said when asked by this writer if fifth was the best he could have achieved from where he started.

“But we just did not have enough pace to do anything better today. All the strategies weren’t too far off. So we had to do something different to try and put Russell under stress at the end of the race. Otherwise, we just had very similar pace.

“We used softs, and we didn’t use hard. Again, when you look at our numbers, and I think everybody’s pace today, there wasn’t a big difference between the compounds. I mean, it was all about a balance, but over 20 lap stints, it was very similar. So it wouldn’t have made a big difference.”

Ferrari has now had two tricky races following a below par performance in Montreal, but Leclerc is hoping that Spain was an anomaly and that Austria will be better.

“I think in Canada it was quite clear, and I think we are going to get better in those conditions the next time we are in those conditions, because we understood something,” he said.

“However, here, it’s still a bit too early on to say. My best guess will be that track characteristics don’t fit our car, and that’s my best guess, but also what I hope for, just to be back on pace from Austria onwards.”

“The high-speed we’ve been a bit struggling this weekend. So let’s see where we are next weekend with the high-speed, but we’ve been struggling a bit more than what I would have expected on the high-speed.”

Leclerc acknowledge that Ferrari has some work to do.

“Every issue is something that we need to tackle as quickly as possible,” he said. “But in F1, it doesn’t take that quick to fix those issues. So of course, we’ve seen, I think the first difficult race of the season was Shanghai, where we saw some things.

“Here we see it again, and we’ve got to focus on that. But before putting those upgrades on one specific issue, we’ve got to have a bit of time.

“And unfortunately even if the season is 24 races long, we still need to be back as quickly as possible, because these are very valuable points that we are losing against our competitors.”

George Russell believes that Mercedes is in good shape in Barcelona

George Russell says that his Mercedes Formula 1 team can “do something different” in strategic terms after securing second row spots for the Spanish GP.

Having qualified just 0.002s apart Lewis Hamilton and Russell will start third and fourth behind Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, whose respective team mates are back in ninth and 11^th.

With two cars at the sharp end Russell suggested that Mercedes will be able to split its strategies as the team takes on the cars ahead, and that overtaking will be possible.

“Two milliseconds is the biggest gap I’ve had for the last four races to a driver around me!,” he said when asked by this writer after the close field. “So it’s crazy to think that.

“Taking the positives, as a team, we’re in the mix. I think Lando did a really great lap. I don’t think Lewis and I kind of really put it together perfectly.

“I thought that was maybe two tenths on the table, not the gap that we saw to pole, but nevertheless, we’re P3/P4 and in a great place to fight for a win tomorrow.”

Regarding prospects for the race he said: “I don’t feel it will be that difficult to overtake, because there’s a lot of tyre degradation here, so you’ve only got to offset yourself by two or three laps, and suddenly, just in the tyre, you’ll probably have a four-tenths advantage on the driver you’re battling.

“We’re obviously in a good position, P3 and P4 strategically to do something different, but ultimately, the quickest driver tomorrow will, nine times out of 10 win the race.

“It’s not like a Singapore or Monaco that if you find yourself in the lead, you can defend it no matter how slow you are.”

Russell acknowledged that the Barcelona qualifying performance showed that Mercedes is now consistently competitive.

“We’ve been at three circuits now,” he said. “In Monaco, we were 20 milliseconds from qualifying third, and would have been a podium, Canada was obviously great.

“And here we’re on the second row, and I think it’s going to be a good fight with Lando and Max tomorrow. I think we’ll probably just have the edge on Ferrari. But I’m standing here with a lot of pride of what the team sort of achieved.

“There’s been a hell of a lot of work to bring this turnaround, and bringing these upgrades consistently a race or two early than they were planned.”

Asked if he was confident that the upturn is a permanent one he said: “You never know 100%, but this is for sure, the most confident we have been over the last three years of what we’ve brought to the car. And I think this is natural as well.

“We’re all gaining experience, we’re all three years into these regs, and I think we all know what makes a good race car in this sort of era, I think it’s proven how tight it is out there with the top four teams at the moment.

“So it’s going to be probably in becoming races, marginal differences will make a big difference in terms of your grid position, but that’s what F1 should be about.”

Alonso anticipates a “painful” triple header starting in Spain

Fernando Alonso expects a “painful” run of races for the Aston Martin Formula 1 team to begin in Barcelona, but he believes that a turnaround in form is not far away.

The Spaniard could qualify only 11^th for his home race after both Alpine drivers made it into Q3, although he will gain a place from a grid penalty for Sergio Perez.

Alonso anticipates that the upcoming events in Austria and Britain will also be difficult for the Silverstone team.

However he believes that upgrades due before the summer break could provide a boost as soon as Belgium and Hungary.

“We knew that it will be very tight in this type of circuit,” he said when asked by this writer about missing Q3 in Barcelona.

“I think Austria will be extreme, because when you’re running in one minute and six seconds or four seconds, it’s going to be even tighter.

“I’m happy with the result, even if it’s painful to say, in front of the home grandstands. But before qualifying, our predictions were a little bit more pessimistic.

“Even with one car, we opted to go for three sets in Q1, which is a sign that you are not very confident. And all-in-all, I think to start P11, or P10 with Checo’s penalty is a good result, and hopefully tomorrow we are just one position away from the points. Let’s see.”

Alonso said he wasn’t concerned about Alpine pushing Aston out of the top 10 in Spain.

“No, I think we knew,” he said. “I mean, Alpine was in front of us in Monaco, it was very close in Canada, and here they are just half-a-tenth in front. So they are getting better, and we are getting worse, probably!

“So the combination of the two is not great! I think, as I said many times, we have some things in the pipeline that should put us back in the right direction.

“It’s going to be painful here. It’s going to be painful in Austria, in Silverstone. We have to keep scoring points if it’s eighth, if it’s seventh, ninth, whatever. But we cannot give up, and must stay positive in these tough times.”

Asked when that pain might end he said: “Hopefully before the summer break. But I think there are a lot of understandings in the team about what went right, what went wrong, not only this year, I think the second part of last year and this year.

“So I think as all the teams, we are getting more and more extreme with the development, and the cars are more critical to drive.

“I think now we understood a few ideas that will bring performance. But as I said, until the next three or four races, some pain to go through.”

Alonso acknowledged that performance in high-speed corners is an issue.

“We’ve been testing few different setups,” he said. “I think these long corners the cars, they all behave differently. I think our car was behaving very differently in Bahrain, and after the first packages that we introduced, we changed a little bit the characteristics of the car.

“So we can mitigate a little bit that with the setups. And I think we are understanding more and more. But when you understand the package, the next one is coming, and it resets everything.

“But as I said, Now I think we have a plan. Let’s see if it contributes to a better result. We are more confident that what we have been in the previous months.”

Alonso is adamant that the Aston technical team is gelling more efficiently as team goes by.

“We cannot forget that last year, it was the first car that this team was making, the new technical team was designing, and I think we’ve been trying to add performance to the car.

“Sometimes we didn’t add much, and we just made the car a little bit more difficult and tricky to drive. And they’ve been working for one year and a half together. So everything is glueing still at the top level, and I think now we are in a strong position into the future.

“So I’m very relaxed, but the present is what matters in racing, and the present is today, the present is Barcelona, and it’s obviously painful, I’m relaxed about the performance.”