Former Aston Martin team boss admits: 'Lawrence Stroll is impatient'
F1 News
Mike Krack has revealed that Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll admitted his F1 project is extremely difficult and complex. The former team principal, who now works as chief trackside officer, guided his team to a fifth-place finish in the constructors in 2024. Although the British team also finished fifth in 2023, last year will be seen as a huge misstep. Their total points tally of 94 was 186 points less than their total of 2023. Since Stroll's comments, Krack has jumped to defend his team, explaining how hard F1 really is to get right.
Aston Martin finished on the podium eight times with Fernando Alonso in 2023, fading towards the end of the year. In 2024, the Silverstone-based squad would've been hoping to continue battling at the sharp end of the grid. Unfortunately, this didn't go to plan. Their 2024 challenger didn't stand out, and several missteps with upgrade packages meant that the car devolved.
Krack: 'It's not as easy as turning a key'
Speaking to Autosport, former team principal Mike Krack said: "He (Lawrence Stroll) is also impatient, which is understandable but the combination of the support, the impatience, but also the understanding of how difficult this is has led to him… I'm not saying giving the time, but understanding that sometimes it's just not like: ‘turn-key’ - you put everything in place and it has to work. I think he recently said, ‘This is the most complicated project I’ve had’ or ‘the most difficult project that I have had so far’ which shows that also for him, he wants to turn the right buttons and there are a lot of human beings involved. It's a big task."
In a recent shift, Krack has moved to the role of chief trackside officer whilst former Mercedes man Andy Cowell takes up the role of team principal. The highly regarded Cowell headed the Mercedes HPP (High-Performance Powertrains) programme which powered them to all drivers and constructors titles between 2014 to 2020. He joined Aston Martin in 2024.
Star designer Adrian Newey also signed with the Aston Martin team in 2024 after an almost 20-year stint with Red Bull Racing. The Brit was the most wanted man on the grid, with rumours linking him to Ferrari, Williams and McLaren in one way or another. He eventually chose to settle at the Silverstone-based team, which will fuel the ambitions of Stroll and team members alike.
Krack admits: 'There is not a bad team on the grid'
Let's not forget, that the competition is extremely high, the competition is tough. There is not a bad team on the grid, and we will see in 2026 when we have a new team. I would be interested to see how that goes because the level, as I said, is incredibly high, and you also want the spotlight all the time.
"The level of operations, the level of everything. The reliability is extremely high and it goes a lot unnoticed. A large chunk of these huge teams are responsible for that. That the level is just so high and then it is the differences that make that make it between first and second or fifth and sixth."
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