Mike Krak, the head of the Aston Martin team, spoke about the progress of the first day of testing in Bahrain and also emphasized that he hopes to continue the collaboration with Fernando Alonso in 2025..
Q: What are your impressions from the start of the pre-season testing?
Mike Krak: We are satisfied with how the first session went; there were no serious problems. But we have to give credit to all the teams; there were no red flags in the morning. This suggests that everyone has shown a very mature and professional approach to preparing the new cars for testing. Let’s hope we can continue in the same vein for the next two and a half days.
Question: Can we say that Fernando Alonso has a positive assessment of the new Aston Martin car?
Mike Krak: Yes, he has very good impressions. We had a shooting day last week and he was quite happy with how it went, although it is clear that we were working on a different circuit and under different conditions. But it is always good when the very first sensations of the racer behind the wheel turn out to be positive, the equipment works flawlessly and he completes lap after lap without any problems.
The same thing happens here during testing, the team did great in the first session and we even completed the whole program faster than expected.
Question: Lance Stroll rides in the afternoon: what problems does he solve? Apparently he’s just continuing the work his partner started?
Mike Krak: Yes, he has to really feel the car, because during the recording day we use different tires, and they don’t work quite like that. Let’s also not forget that a year ago Lance did not complete a single lap of the circuit in Bahrain. But in the end, the tasks ahead are the same: study the car, feel how its behavior changes when changing the settings, because when the racing starts there is no time for experiments.
The program also includes a racing simulation, where the reliability of the equipment is tested, as we need to ensure that everything works exactly as we expected. And besides, we will try to increase the speed of the car. But the other nine teams follow approximately the same program.
The key is to make sure we don’t have correlation problems. It is very important to know that the tools you use when developing a machine work exactly as they should.
You probably haven’t seen a single car on the track that didn’t have special sensors installed to evaluate the effectiveness of the aerodynamic body kit. Everyone wants to know if the underside of the car works correctly compared to the calculations obtained using CFD technologies, so we are not the only ones who do this. I believe this work will continue in the coming days as this is very important information.
Question: Are you going to test completely new components?
Mike Krak: Yes, such items are always in our program, because the modernization of the chassis will of course continue even after the start of the season. Some components we tested today, some are scheduled for tomorrow, others on the third day. But this is difficult work, because the pace of modernization this year will be very fast, and we want to be ready for that.
We have planned the modernization phases of the FW46 for the entire season and we will now take the first small steps.
Q: One of the big stories this winter relates to Lewis Hamilton’s upcoming transition from Mercedes to Ferrari. Has this affected your team in any way? Have you had conversations with Fernando and Lance yet? Do you have an idea what Aston Martin’s line-up could look like next year?
Mike Krak: Yes, at today’s press conference, everyone only discussed the pilot market situation. But I think it benefits Formula 1 when we discuss these kinds of things, because the fans’ interest immediately grows.
We are very satisfied with our riders and are already negotiating further cooperation with both of them. I’ve said it more than once and I’m willing to repeat it: we want both to stay on our team. We said from the beginning that we wanted to continue working with Fernando, and he also said that he would like to stay, although we have to admit that he has attracted the attention of other teams.
We’ll see how things develop in the coming weeks, but I’m confident we can continue our collaboration.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
