Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack has explained how the team has been prepared to fall back from their impressive early-season form – even though the drop came early than expected. The Silverstone-based squad started 2023 impressively, having made a considerable step forward from their 2022 form, with new signing Fernando Alonso taking six podium finishes across the season's first eight races as Aston Martin could legitimately claim to be F1's fastest team behind Red Bull. However, in recent weeks, Aston Martin appears to have slipped back in competitiveness as other teams, notably McLaren, have upgraded their cars, with a brace of fifth places from Alonso the best the team has managed over the past four races. But despite having seemingly fallen from the lofty heights they had scaled earlier in the season, Krack insists the team was prepared for such a drop-off in performance.
Aston Martin prepared for drop
"At the beginning of the year, when we had [several] podiums, I always said that there will be more difficult times, and they came much quicker than we wanted them to come," Krack told media, including RacingNews365. "But this is the reality of Formula 1. It's very competitive, and as soon as other people are also developing hard, you see a change in the pecking order, and just to stay where you are needs an incredible amount of work. "It shows that everybody is pushing really hard and flat out, so we knew that it was going to not be easy all season."
Improvements from Hungary to Belgium
Alonso's latest fifth place in the Belgian Grand Prix came after the Spaniard had risen from ninth on the grid, and Krack noted the importance of the team having improved from the preceding race in Hungary, where Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll finished only ninth and tenth. "This is very, very important," Krack said of the apparent improvement from Hungary to Belgium. "For everybody involved, they have put crazy hours over the last weeks, and it's always important to realise that hard work pays, otherwise you get disillusioned, and it becomes more and more difficult. "That was very positive for the team, that you see that working hard together, we can improve the car, but this was only the first step. "We are still not anywhere near a podium finish, so there is much more that we need."
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