Aston Martin highlight painful disparity after 'unfortunate takeaway'

Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack has pointed out a crippling contrast at the Silverstone-based squad, after Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll suffered three retirements out of six starts in F1's most recent triple-header.

The performance of the AMR26 was more convincing at the São Paulo Grand Prix, with Alonso even able to mix it with the Ferraris in the tricky conditions at Interlagos.

Having qualified an impressive ninth on the grid and starting eighth, the two-time F1 drivers' champion was, however, unable to stay in the points, ultimately falling to P12 as his team-mate retired for the 13th time in 20 rounds.

The Spaniard failing to add to his haul of seven points this season was, to Krack, the main "takeaway" of the weekend in Brazil, despite encouraging signs from the car.

"When the conditions were difficult, like [in qualifying], and also like [the race], I think the competitiveness was better; it was improved," Krack told media, including RacingNews365.

"And especially [in the race], it was a good performance considering the overall picture of the year. It was one of the most competitive weekends.

"So, unfortunately, no points. That is always the takeaway of a weekend."

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The positives and negatives

With Aston Martin still plagued with reliability issues emanating from the Honda power unit, Krack was keen to emphasise the conflicting conclusions that can be drawn from the round at Interlagos.

"All in all, we have beaten some competitors that are faster than us, certainly faster cars," he added.

"So, a positive from that point of view, but also, if you review the last triple header, we had five [three] DNFs out of six races.

"That is something we certainly need to work on. So, positive from the competitiveness side, but not so positive from reliability."