Aston Martin demand new 'standard' with sights set on Red Bull

Alonso verslaat Pérez op Interlagos — Photo: © LAT Images

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Aston Martin demand new 'standard' with sights set on Red Bull

Aston Martin are using Red Bull as the gold standard example

Cal Gaunt

Saturday 23 December 2023 15:57

Aston Martin are desperate to improve their grand prix executions and achieve a reliability akin to Red Bull's standard to compete at the forefront of Formula 1.

Despite securing eight podiums and a substantial points increase in the successful 2023 season, the mid-season setback and a fifth-place finish in the standings highlighted the need for enhanced on-track performance.

Performance director Tom McCullough and team boss Mike Krack acknowledge the progress but stress the crucial objective of attaining Red Bull's operational excellence for the upcoming 2024 season.

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll had a promising year with Aston Martin

Tom McCullough wants to see Aston Martin match Red Bull-levels of reliability

'We have to reach Red Bull standard'

"The team has generally executed weekends well, and in the past, we were very well-known for that," McCullough said.

"Now on top of that, we're obviously trying to design and develop a car to go fight at the front, and we had a rear wing in Suzuka with a manufacturing problem where it failed, the power unit, or actually exhaust problem, in Jeddah.

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"It is these things that don't happen as a team if we want to fight right at the front and you have got to have perfect weekends, weekend in, weekend out.

"Another example, by Red Bull, is from the reliability side as well as the operational side. That is the standard we've got to get to and it is not just focusing on one area, there a lots of areas where we need small margins just to be better.

"We know that if we give our drivers good cars, they'll get us good results so that's what we've got to focus on doing."

Mike Krack outlined three key objectives for 2024

Krack optimistic

Krack emphasised his commitment to progress, grounded in the pursuit of three key objectives.

"It is safety, reliability and then operations first," he said.

"With the operational side, if we do not manage to be at 100 per cent, which we must in each session and each event over the whole year, if we do not manage that, we cannot extract the maximum performance, be it the driver, car, set-up or engineer.

"We must guarantee that we have this box ticked and we have failed to do so a couple of occasions this year, but we know we need to have it right."

Red Bull Formula 1 Aston Martin Fernando Alonso Lance Stroll Mike Krack