Amid the hype over Aston Martin’s fast start to the Formula 1 season, team principal Mike Krack says the team’s focus must be on doing all it needs to do to exploit the potential of its 2023 car and avoiding costly mistakes.
Aston started the new season in sensational style at the Bahrain Grand Prix, finishing third courtesy of Fernando Alonso and having the second-quickest car to Red Bull in the race. After such an impressive step forward over the winter to be able to compete with the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes, Krack says the team needs to take care it doesn’t trip itself up.
“The thing is you have to keep your head down and not (lose it),” Krack said. “I think it’s very, very important that we enjoy if we have a competitive car, but we also must not forget mistakes are really quickly made.
“One of the key things coming into the (Bahrain) weekend was not to make mistakes in qualifying and not to make major mistakes in the race. A pit stop can go wrong quickly, or reliability can strike you. For us, it was really about delivering a solid performance, and not making any huge errors.”
Pre-season testing had shown Aston Martin to be competitive but Krack says the way the opening race in Bahrain started — with both cars losing ground and making contact — shows how fine the margins are between success and failure.
“We must not lose the ground from underneath our feet and dream about podiums straightaway. We knew that we were not bad; we knew that we had a strong race pace. But so many things could go wrong.
“After two laps, I was not dreaming about a podium, to be very honest with you. So it is all things where you have to see how the race unfolds and just focus on your job. We had also the attrition of Charles (Leclerc), which we should not forget. All in all, you can dream about podiums, but you should not predict them.
“We wanted to make a step forwards. We did not say we want to beat Red Bull. Again, let’s keep our feet on the ground, let’s work hard. It could be that in Jeddah (the next race in Saudi Arabia), we’re maybe fourth or fifth or sixth in terms of teams ranking.”
