Mike Krack Brutal Confession as Aston Martin Falls from Grace in 2024

Saajan Jogia | Jan 6, 2025

Nov 22, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team driver Lance Stroll of Canada (18) drives during qualifiers for the Formula 1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024 at the Las Vegas Circuit. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images / Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images

Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack has admitted the team must critically assess the areas that fell short in the 2024 season after a considerable decline in performance compared to 2023. Aston Martin ended both seasons fifth in the Constructors' Championship and a lack of strong development on the car due to the complexities of the current ground effect era meant the team got stuck in a limbo that it now needs to get out of.

Another concern for Krack is that rival teams, which had previously trailed behind Aston Martin's AMR24 F1 car, managed to develop their cars to outpace both of its drivers on multiple race weekends. Teams like VCARB and Haas became confident challengers, while Aston Martin's best finish of the 2024 season was a P5 in Saudi Arabia. The Alpine F1 team also showed improvement, with both of its drivers securing podium finishes in Brazil.

The results are a stark contrast to the way Aston Martin began the 2023 season when Alonso secured eight podium finishes. Looking back at the 2024 season that serves as a warning to the team to pull its socks up, Krack said, in discussion with Motorsport.com:

"We delivered below expectation, so we cannot be happy with how our season went.

"We stay in P5, but had the championship started in the summer, we would not finish in P5. So, I think in all we need to reflect on the season and see it very critically.

"The steps that we have brought to the car have not managed to improve the car and there is a little bit of parallel last year in all that. The difference is that we have started better last year and we have not started at that same high level this year.

"So, I think there's plenty for us to look at in terms of how we how we do these things because we have now, two years in a row, not really managed to improve from where we started but rather slipped back."

He added:

"The fact is that, independent of the others, you have a baseline car at the start of the year and you have a car at the end of the year, and you have some steps in between.

"I think the development curve from others has been much better than ours. Independent of where we have finished, the finishing positions of the first eight or nine races of 2023 has added a lot of pressure on the whole system. But the result, at the end of the day, whether you start the year in fifth fastest – or fourth, depending on how you look at it this year – or you started in second or third fastest, does not change the picture.

"It changed the picture to the outside. Like: ‘they have been so good and now they are so bad’. But, when I take the competitiveness, or the pecking order, when you take that out, you have a car that you start the season [with] and you have the car that you end the season [with] – how much have we improved it? I think here others have done a better job two years in a row and that is something that we need to really look at."

When Krack was asked if he noticed improvements on the AMR24, he said:

"We are always trying to be honest with ourselves and try to gauge that.

"It is a question where often you say, ‘we have improved it in this area, but we have made it probably worse in this area’. So, I don't think that you will always have, like, ‘we made it better in every area’. Maybe when you start like this [way off the pace].

"But, seriously, I think it's a concern. Because, if you have done that twice in a row, it's not a one-off. It’s something you have to look at in your system.

"The progress that we wanted to make – you formulate some targets and you do not achieve them. You do not deliver the performance that you want to deliver. You can put it down to all kinds of areas. You can say, ‘it's not correlating the way it should’. But then others are using the same tunnel, for example; if you go about aerodynamics [and say] ‘it's not correlating’, why are the others correlating and making progress?

"So, you have to be critical with yourself. You cannot just say, ‘it's this, it's this’. The level is too high to not look very thoroughly about what you are doing.

"Then you have to be self-critical. Did we take the right decisions at the right times? Should we have waited with maybe one or two steps until they are really proven properly? Or did we just rush into things because the pressure is high? So, it is all questions that we have to ask ourselves – critically – and take the right conclusions from it."