F1 News
Aston Martin boss critical of Horner: 'He ran to the media immediately'
- GPblog.com
After a 13-year absence, Mike Krack returned to Formula 1 in 2022, where he joined Aston Martin as team boss after Otmar Szafnauer's departure. The Luxembourger said he was surprised by the political games going on behind the scenes today.
Krack began his career in motorsport in 1998 as a test engineer at BMW, before moving to Sauber in 2001 as a data analyst. There he rose to become Felipe Massa's race engineer and eventually chief engineer. In 2009, he left the team and with it the sport, followed by a stint in Formula 3 and later DTM.
In the years that followed, he oversaw BMW Motorsport's Formula E, IMSA and GT programmes, among others, attracting the interest of Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll. In 2022, he joined the British racing stable as team boss after Otmar Szafnauer left for Alpine.
On his return to the top class of motorsport, however, Krack says he was surprised by the political games behind the scenes. "It surprised me that all details, however small, are reported in Formula 1 and how often the media are used to play politics," the Luxembourger said in conversation with Sport1.
Krack does not like games
As an example, he cited the agreement to increase the budget cap due to inflation. There was an unanimous agreement, but afterwards not everyone turned out to be entirely happy after all. "A team boss ran to the media immediately afterwards and lamented that the increase was not high enough," Krack continues his story.
In doing so, he seems to be referring to Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner. He argued that the increase was not enough for the top teams, but too much for the smaller teams, and thus a compromise had to be found.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff also appeared not to be averse to using his political influence in 2022: by insisting that porpoising posed health risks, he managed to force rule changes at the FIA to counter the problem.
Krack says he prefers not to get involved in such political games. "I prefer to talk about the sport. The fans are interested in lap times, not so much in budgets or overly flexible chassis. But maybe I am not enough of a politician. One thing is certain: you must not overestimate all this either and always keep calm."