Aston Martin urged against 'full destruction mode' despite poor results

Aston Martin boss Mike Krack has urged the team not to enter into "full destruction mode" despite its under-performance this year. 

After a strong 2023 in which it bagged eight podiums and challenged for a top-four spot in the constructors' championship, Aston Martin has had a difficult campaign, with its best result after 18 races being Fernando Alonso's fifth place in Saudi Arabia. 

The AMR24 has struggled to be developed, with Alonso, in particular, vocal about the need for upgrades, often turning questions on the subject in the direction of Krack and engineering chief Tom McCullough.

The Azerbaijan and Singapore GPs, however, brought a degree of relief to the team as Alonso finished sixth and eighth, respectively, emerging as the so-called 'Class B winner', with Krack using the example of the top teams points-harvesting rate to urge an improvement from the team.

"The worst comment that you can make is that we are the best of the rest, but we should not go into full destruction mode," Krack told media including RacingNews365. 

"We have to make sure that the positive results we are accumulating are not hiding the facts that we have to improve or that we are not where we want to be. 

"That is critical as a team because from the outside, you see us scoring and scoring points, but the four teams ahead of us always scoring more than three or four times the points per race - and that is what you see at the end of the day. 

"Up and down the pit lane, apart from one team, everybody is putting upgrades on, removing part of them or going back to a previous spec. 

'It is not easy and I wish we would be in a different position, but we are not and others have understood things quicker than we have. 

"We have to be self-critical, and these results should not hide the fact that we are not where we want to be."