“You have to zoom out and look at the bigger picture”: Aston Martin boss Mike Krack talks about the team’s challenging period during 2023 F1 season

Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack recently talked about his team's challenging period when it was falling down the grid as the 2023 F1 season progressed.

At the start of the season, the Silverstone-based team was the second-fastest car on the grid, only behind Red Bull. However, as the year went by, it started tumbling down the order.

In an exclusive interview on the Aston Martin website, Krack initially claimed that the main challenge was to understand whether his team was not developing enough or whether rival teams were improving massively.

“For me, that period was challenging because there’s a need to understand what’s happening. You have to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. Are others improving massively? Are we not progressing enough? You have to be honest in your assessments, ask yourself tough questions, form an understanding, and then make sure everybody in the team also understands the situation, sticks together, and works through it,” he explained.

Furthermore, he reiterated what he previously said - that the aim for the team was to simply understand the AMR23 car for the rest of the 2023 F1 season.

Krack himself felt that if Aston Martin bagged a podium in the second half of the season, it would be a great achievement for the team. Thankfully, Aston Martin stood on the podium twice in the latter stages of 2023.

“I said a few times, the goal for the rest of the season was to understand the car and reverse the trend. I thought if we could get back on the podium in the second half of the year, that would be a fantastic achievement. We did that twice – but everyone still wants more!” he added.

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Fernando Alonso feels Aston Martin's toughest challenges are still ahead

F1 veteran Fernando Alonso feels Aston Martin will soon face its toughest challenges as it progresses to become a top team. Furthermore, he claims that the British outfit needs to find something extra innovative and creative to get ahead of other top teams like Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull.

“The starting point is a little better than I thought, but now the real difficulty begins… Now, here comes the difficult period for Aston Martin,” Alonso was quoted as saying by MARCA.

“I think in the next two or three years, finding that extra something no one has – being creative, innovative. I think that perhaps is the biggest question we must face,” he added.

In the 2023 F1 season, Aston Martin ended up in fifth place with 280 points.