Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack denies the team is performing below expectations despite making a less competitive start to 2024 than last year.
The team is yet to score a podium finish so far this season but took five over the first six rounds of 2023.
Krack said the team is closer to the front runners in terms of outright performance, but other team have also become more competitive, making it harder to score points.
“Performance-wise, we are where we expected to be,” he said. “We’ve closed the gap to the front but it’s ultra-competitive and the pack is very tight.”
Fernando Alonso has scored points in all six grands prix but finished lower than he started in four of them.
“Coming into this year, we expected to be fifth fastest and that’s where we’ve often been in race trim,” said Krack. “In qualifying, we’ve often been third fastest which has been positive, and we’re working hard on developing the car to make sure we can capitalise on our strong performance over one lap.”
After the first six rounds of 2024, Aston Martin have scored 42 points from a possible 294. At the same stage last year the team had taken 120 points from a possible 279.
The team will have more new parts for its AMR24 this weekend as it seeks to close the gap to the pace-setters. “We’re bringing an update to Imola as part of our continuous programme of in-season development,” Krack said. “This should address several areas for improvement that we’ve identified, but it’s all relative – nobody stands still in F1 – and our competitors will be bringing new parts too.”
Krack said the team has improved other aspects of its performance in 2024. “Operationally, we’ve been very strong,” he noted.
“Our pit stops have consistently been among the fastest and we have not lost a minute of track time because of any operational glitches.
“As a team, we’ve executed well throughout the campaign and that is down to the hard work and dedication of everyone both at the Campus and the track.”
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Formula 1
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