Krak: When preparing new items, we were sometimes in too much of a hurry

Aston Martin F1 chief Mike Krak is realistic about the team’s capabilities in the final stages of the season, but sets very ambitious targets for next year..

Q: Before the summer holidays, you were confident that the team would make progress. Do you still have the same attitude now?
Mike Krak: That remains the case, although it is difficult to explain after a number of recent races. It was always clear to us what the direction of modernization of the machine should be, and this is an important point. But against our expectations we have not been able to improve the results and provide our drivers with a good enough car.

We need to understand why this happened and learn important lessons. We probably prepared and presented our new products at the track in haste. The need for a technical update of the car always exists, but sometimes we were in too much of a hurry. Now it is important to realize that quality is more important than quantity.

However, if I try to look at what is happening in a broader sense, I can say that everything is not so bad. The wind tunnel work on the AMR25 is progressing at an encouraging pace; we have managed to attract excellent specialists such as Andy Cowel, Adrian Newey and Enrico Cardile to the team – they are among the best in Formula 1.

New infrastructure facilities are also continually coming into use at the Aston Martin base, and the team’s preparations for the coming seasons are progressing at a good pace.

There are many processes going on behind the scenes, and all this convinces me that we have chosen the right course – this is what my confidence is based on. Compared to last season, we learned a lot, both when we achieved success and when we made mistakes. But we already understand more clearly the tasks we face, and we ask ourselves more and more questions to better see the difference between our expectations and real results.

Question: How well are Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso handling the situation?
Mike Krak: We have to give credit to both, they are coping very well in these difficult times. It is incredibly difficult for them, because they are the ones who communicate with the press, they are criticized because we are not showing the results that we promised to show. But the riders act together at every stage of the season and present a united front. And when they criticize the team, they always mean it and always try to motivate them to give their best.

Q: Is it fair to say that their work hasn’t received the attention it deserves this year?
Mike Krak: If you’re competing for the podium, like last year, there are probably fifty journalists around, and if you’re competing for twelfth place, one or maybe two members of the press will come up to you. For racers it is very difficult because if they do not earn prizes, it does not mean that they put in less effort.

But they do not give in to despondency, because they understand that a negative attitude does not bring anything. To some extent I have experienced this too, but all of this has only brought us closer. This year the team has become more united, which is also very important.

Question: Last weekend in Brazil was particularly difficult for both…
Mike Krak: We shouldn’t just talk about Brazil, because this was the case in all stages of this series of three Grand Prix in a row. We arrived in Sao Paulo without earning any points in the first two stages. At this stage of the season the supply of spare parts is very limited, and Brazil was already the third race we participated in.

We had to use parts that we probably wouldn’t put on cars if we had the choice. We understand that all this will affect the speed, because our priorities have already shifted to preparing for 2025. In general, everything was against Lance and Fernando, but even taking that into account the weekend was too difficult.

In fact, it was not easy for all riders, as the renewed surface of the track turned out to be very uneven and when it started to rain, it became very slippery. Our car is already extremely difficult to drive, so for Lance and Fernando the problems only got worse.

On days like last Sunday at Interlagos, it becomes especially clear that we have a responsibility to provide our riders with better technology…

Now that we are back at base, the priority is to understand the root cause of the problems that Lance encountered during the formation lap and Fernando during the race.

Q: What challenges does the team face in the remaining races of the season?
Mike Krak: The obvious goal for the remaining races is to maintain fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship. A less obvious goal is to gain as much knowledge and experience as possible, which will come in handy in preparing for 2025.

We will still try to get the best possible results in every race, but it is just as important to use Friday’s training effectively to understand how correct is the approach we have taken in preparing for next season.

Question: Which results in 2025 do you consider good enough?
Mike Krak: First of all, we have to start the new season better than we started this year. We hope that we can lay a good foundation, that we will make good decisions in the process of further modernizing the car and gradually realize improvements.

A special season awaits us, because during the transition to the new technical regulations we have to make an early move to create the 2026 car. I believe that after the summer holidays we will not see any new products from anyone – teams will stop preparation for it, unless there is really intense rivalry to win the championship.

Our goal is to produce a faster, more efficient car for the Melbourne race that the drivers feel more comfortable in. Currently in Formula 1 there is a division of teams into two groups: there are four top teams and the remaining six. Unfortunately, we are still in the second group and next season can be called successful if we can make the top four into the top five.