Proud Mike Krack on 'opportunity of a lifetime': 'Anything goes at Aston Martin'

It was a busy Thursday morning for Mike Krack in Azerbaijan. The Aston Martin team boss addressed the written press and then the television crews. Logically, there is only one topic: the arrival of Adrian Newey. On the Tuesday before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Aston Martin confirmed the technical head's arrival with a grand presentation.

After spending half an hour answering questions about Adrian Newey's arrival, Krack sat down with GPblog.com. Mike was calm, had another chat with the press officer and then moved across to the table. On a busy day, there was no time to waste, but the first question, which was not about Newey, put a smile on Mike's face.

Why are you the team boss of Aston Martin?

Mike Krack: "That's a good question (laughs). It's a fantastic job to do. I've been asked to do this. I was at BMW Motorsport before and when I got contacted, I thought it was for a technical role because I was in technical roles for many, many years. I was quite surprised that this role came up. But then I did not have to think long about it."

"I knew about Lawrence [Stroll's] ambitions. In many, many teams or many, many areas you go in and you get ‘this we don't have or this we don't do’ and with Lawrence it's just full in. The main reason why I wanted to do this is that this is an opportunity of a lifetime. In such a structure, with that timing, I think it's something that you have to just do."

"Obviously on the racetrack, there is highs and lows and there will continue to be highs and lows. But overall, as I said it’s an opportunity of a lifetime. That’s the magic word about it. We have someone with a vision that does not stop. He just puts everything in to be successful. And that is very exciting to be part of."

How has that developed for you over the years. Those were important reasons for getting into the project, but why are you still here now?

"First of all, you have the vision. When I joined, we were still in the old building, the old Jordan factory. Building one (of the new Aston Martin campus at Silverstone) wasn't even there yet. But we had great plans. At the start of 2022, we had a car that was not performing. The whole process of building a team takes time. And that is also motivating.

"We improved the car. We grew the team and we took more and more infrastructure into service. Again, two weeks ago, building two and three building came alive. These are all things that you don't see on track, obviously, that you have to work at the same time. At the same time, the team is growing in manpower. You have to restructure. You have to change the way you are working. Communication is very important.

"We still have a lot of work ahead of us. It is this day to day work, the development of the team, development of the car, development of the structure, infrastructure as well. That is very challenging. Start of 2022 to the end of 2024 is three years. Wow. What have we done in that three years in terms of developing this team? The only thing that is the same is the colour. Everything else has changed enormously over that time. But that's very, very rewarding. Not sure if pride is the right word, but something to really be happy to be part of."

How would you describe your role in that whole process since you started here?

"What is important for me is that you manage to make the people work together. That is much more difficult than it sounds. You have a workforce of three, four hundred that you are doubling or maybe even more. You take new buildings into service. And it's not that everybody just smiles every day and puts it in. You're working with human beings. Not machines. So you have to really try and understand where there is a lot of change and human beings don't like change. Not liking or not loving change is something that is preventing people from being at their best.

"So I think it's very important that you try to create an environment where people can be at their best. That is a lot of work. If you change the workings, simple things like changing the working space where people have been sitting for 20 years, and you say tomorrow, you sit somewhere else, in another building, in this place with someone else. Don't expect that everybody will just jump up and be happy about it. Yes, there are always concerns, there's fear and these kind of things. And I think you take a dip, first of all, until you achieve a new balance. But I think this new balance will be at a better level."

How do you create that mindset of being open to change?

"I think first of all, you have to lead by example. You have to be open by yourself, to accommodate change and accommodate a flexible approach. And you should never go into something where you are consolidated. You need to find this fine balance between consistent changing for the better. But also you need to give the human, the human element, the time to get used to it, to find a new home, a new balance.

"If you change everything too many times, then it is also counterproductive. And I think what is needed a lot is a lot of communication. As I said, leading by yourself, leading by example, you cannot just lock yourself somewhere and just hope that everything is developing in the right way. And trying to elaborate a vision, how do we want to work together, and then piece by piece by piece, try to work these steps through."

On the Aston Martin website at the beginning of the year, you talked about 'hyperfocus' as one of your spearheads. Can you explain what you mean by that and how you make that part of the team?

"It is actually quite simple. The most important thing is that you have a clarity of the roles. Clarity of what is expected from everybody and when and who to report to. What is your garden? What is expected from you in that working space. If you have a lot of people that are working like that, with a certain amount of overlap or a certain amount of supervision from the managers, I think you have these focused areas.

"Everybody is focused really on what we expect from them. I should not be telling Will what he has to communicate and he should not tell me what I have to do. He has to have his framework. I have to have mine. Engineers have to have theirs.

"I think if you have this dedication on your task, if they're well established plus the senior management that is communicating well then you can create this hyper focused approach if you want. I really believe in that. It's human not to do that. It’s human to look at what others are doing. It's very important that first of all you concentrate on what you expect from yourself."

With a background in technical roles, you also know how important freedom is for creativity. How do you make sure there is room for creativity in that framework?

"The most important thing is there is never a bad idea. But you have to have the ideas and you need to create the environment to have ideas. That is something that is really important to me. How can we create an environment where people love to come, where people are laughing, where people are enjoying themselves. It’s not a pub but you still should enjoy what you're doing because if you enjoy what you're doing, you are good at what you're doing. This is very important.

"We need to create that environment so that people can be discussing things, that people can be laughing about, that people can have a good time and the people like to be there. They don’t go ‘I have to go home now or I want to go home now’. It's 5 o'clock. I need to go home like in the tax office or in the post office. This is the environment that we want to create, first of all with a nice infrastructure. But then you need to fill it with humans, you need to fill it with life and this is a big task that we are not finished yet. This is something we are really working hard on and then this is I think one of the keys to make this a success."

In the exclusive interview with GPblog.com, Mike Krack also addressed the arrival of Adrian Newey. He spoke about how the arrival of someone with such a reputation can cause a team to have more faith in its own ability, but also that a team cannot consist only of stars. That story previously appeared on this website and can be found here.