Aston Martin in unusual concession amid F1 form slump

Aston Martin boss Mike Krack has conceded that the atmosphere in the team is "not perfect" following a mixed 2024 season. 

After 12 races in 2023, Aston Martin had bagged six podiums, had 196 points and was in third place in the constructors' standings.

But at the same stage 12 months on, it has yet to reach the podium, is fifth in the championship and has just 68 points with a best finish of fifth for Fernando Alonso in Saudi Arabia. 

Upgrades brought to the car have not worked as intended, with the AMR24 tending to favour the cooler weather conditions - as evidenced by double-point finishes in the last two wet races in Canada and Britain. 

After the Silverstone race, in which Lance Stroll was seventh and Alonso eighth, Krack admitted the harmony within the team was not great. 

"[The atmosphere] in the team is not perfect," Krack told media including RacingNews365.

"We should be happy that we have both cars in the points [at the British Grand Prix], because that was our target, but we also have to see that we were behind the Haas and we were not the best of the rest. 

"That is why I want to be a little more conservative about where we are and [saying] everything is good."

The perfect race?

Despite the wider struggles, Krack felt the team could take pride in how it handled the dry-wet-dry British GP - being one of only two teams to bring home both drivers in the points, the other being McLaren.

Unlike Andrea Stella's team with the botched double-stack of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and the decision to put Norris on softs instead of mediums in the final stint, Krack felt Aston executed a "perfect race."

"It is very difficult because you see the [weather] colours on the radar and the drivers report to you what is happening around the track, they are tough calls to make and you can get it wrong very quickly," he said.

"I think we also need to analyse was it better to do one lap or stop one lap later with both cars, because they were very close, so one will lose out, but I think it was a very good call from the team. 

"We did it right and only McLaren had two cars in the top 10 - and a lot of things went wrong there [with their strategy].

"I think we can be happy in such situations to execute that to execute the perfect race is always very difficult - but we did quite well."