Mike Krak: Alonso didn’t need to be coaxed

Mike Krak, head of Aston Martin F1, commented on the results of the first training session at Spa, explained the duties for the remaining nine races and also promised that the team will be able to present some surprises next year.

Mike Krak: “The weekend started well, although the conditions gave us an advantage (Lance Stroll set 5th time), because the rain that started didn’t allow all the riders to do laps on soft tires, Sebastian included. But let’s hope everything goes well in the future.

We are not going to give up the fight this year, we will try to improve our positions in the Constructors’ Championship because 9th place does not suit us. Of course we can’t put too much effort into developing next year’s car, but we don’t want to end the season that way either. That is why we plan to attack with full force before the end of the year.”

Next year Fernando Alonso will replace Sebastian Vettel in Aston Martin, and this decision by the two-time world champion surprised many, but Mike Krak stressed that they did not have to convince the famous Spanish driver for a long time.

“There was no need to make any special effort to convince him,” Krak said. – Fernando has a general idea of ​​what is happening in a particular team and believes that our project has great potential. It is worth recalling that many great specialists have already joined us, but the process of strengthening the team continues, more and more new people are joining. So there was no need to convince him.

When Sebastian announced his plans, we had to figure out which riders we should actually sign a contract with for next year and finally invite the best of them. We had other candidates, but I don’t think it’s worth going into details and naming them.

Fernando Alonso is a champion and you don’t just become a champion. These people are always focused on the fight, they always ask the right questions and push teams to their limits. In our opinion it is important to us that the team had such a racer who sometimes asks uncomfortable questions, but will help Aston Martin reach a new level.

First of all, Alonso is a very fast driver and this is always the most important criterion. And he still craves victory, strives for success and we are lucky to have an experienced professional who has all these qualities come to us. I think we made the right choice and Fernando will help us make Aston Martin one of the best teams in the championship.

When we informed the team about the contract with Alonso, and this was before the release of the official statement, there was a very violent reaction. Our engineers and designers have never expressed their enthusiasm so loudly! The whole team felt a new wave of strength and we are already looking forward to working with Fernando. I hope we can surprise everyone next year.”