Krack not happy with Perez comment: 'Don't want war of words with Red Bull'

Aston Martin look set to compete at the front this year, if the Bahrain Grand Prix is anything to go by. Nobody expected that before pre-season testing. Team boss Mike Krack is delighted with the strides his team has made, he told GPblog and others enthusiastically.

Mike Krack had words of praise for Fernando Alonso, did he have any left for Lance Stroll? "Absolutely. We must not forget he had no testing. He had a problem on Friday, technical. Then he had huge stress yesterday in qualifying. He did not drive the hard tyres at all, because we saved both. You have no reference about managing. I think we know in all the hype that we had around the podium, we have to pull our heads over what Lance did today."

Sergio Perez jokingly said during the post-race press conference that he liked seeing three Red Bulls on the podium, referring to the similarities between the RB19 and the Aston Martin. Did Krack experience that comment as derogatory? "We always decided we would not go into any war of words, so we will leave it there," he said.

Despite the suggestion that both cars are very similar, the Red Bull is ultimately faster. How big is the gap with Red Bull according to the Luxembourger? "I think the gap is still substantial. We don't know how much management Red Bull had to do. I think it was quite comfortable for them. Just get the mandatory tyres through and cruise the race to the end. I think we have now one good result. We have improved our car. We are fighting here with teams that are used to driving on the front. They are very used to high intensity development.  So I think again, let's be respectful and humble and see how it continues."