Krack acknowledges difficult period Aston Martin: 'But that was encouraging'

At the start of the season, Aston Martin hardly knew what hit it. Fernando Alonso grabbed one podium finish after another. The final races before the summer break had little left of the good form of early 2023. Instead of competing for the podium, the adage was suddenly grab points. The 'low point' was the Hungarian Grand Prix, where the ambitious Aston Martin finished ninth and 10th.

Krackt factored in a motivational speech

Although Aston Martin fared slightly better at the Belgian Grand Prix (Alonso finished fifth, Stroll ninth), the result did not come close to what was possible earlier this season. In short, the English team has had a difficult phase and that could lead to morale being affected. At least Mike Krack, Aston Martin's team boss, had taken that into account.

"I was very surprised, actually. I thought it would happen what you have said," Krack told GPblog and others, referring to the difficult days after the Hungarian Grand Prix. "And I also think after the race on Sunday, I already prepared a couple of lines for our debrief. But the reaction I have seen from the team straight away on the Sunday debrief and on the Monday briefing at the factory, which we do with all the employees, was fantastic. It was really like, okay, what do we do now? And you could see there was the lights did not go off in the composite shop. It did not go off in the analysis departments."

"And the reaction of the team has been fantastic. And it's very encouraging to see that, that you do not have to say, everything is going to be better and all that. No, it was really very competitive spirit. And it's very encouraging for the future to see that," said the Luxembourger.

Alonso and Stroll were constructive

Not only the staff, but also the drivers did not react negatively or cynically. "So both drivers, they were super constructive in the debrief on Sunday. It also went quite long. We almost missed the flight. Then it went on Monday with very long messages. Lance was also there. So that was quite good because you have the analysis, and then we try to have their comments backed on what we have found based on our findings. And I think it was quite nice to see that they confirmed that these are the main areas that we have to work on. So, yeah, really great team effort. But now we have to put it into reality also."