Aston Martin job 'would have been easy to run away from'

Krack in Australia — Photo: © LAT Images

Aston Martin

Aston Martin job 'would have been easy to run away from'

Team has yet to score a point this season

Ian Parkes

Wednesday 20 April 2022 10:30

Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack has revealed it would have been easy for him to have shunned his new role upon learning the gravity of the organisation's situation.

Former BMW boss Krack was appointed in mid-January as a replacement for stalwart Otmar Szafnauer who has since joined Alpine as its team boss.

Despite the resources that have been ploughed into the team over the past few years following Lawrence Stroll's takeover, it has taken a major backward step this season following the implementation of the new aerodynamic regulations.

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Going into the fourth round of the campaign in Imola this weekend, Aston Martin is the only team yet to score a point.

Asked as to whether he was given any indication as to the difficulties the team might face this year when he was approached for the role, Krack replied: "A good question.

"I had a lot of questions when I was approached for this position. When I got the answers to these questions I knew this was going to be a big challenge.

"But it would have been easy to have run away from it, so I never expected it was going to be easy, and I have to say the first three races have really not been easy.

"At the end of the day, Formula 1 is Formula 1. It's hard. You have to have a quick car, you have to make no mistakes, you have to have good drivers.

"The whole thing is not together at the moment, so we have to really work hard to get there. There's no magic at the end of the day."

The poor results have placed early pressure on both the team and Krack, who only began work a few weeks ago, meaning that with the hectic start to the season he has not had much time to reflect on matters at the team's factory in Silverstone.

As to the added difficulties of his new position when the team is struggling so much, Krack added: "Let's put it like this, you clearly need to identify who works on each process and who is doing what.

"When you are away with the racing team you have less of an insight than if you have, let's say, for example, a three-month period at the factory to start with.

"To identify a weakness, it's clearly the performance of the car, and how we improve that is something we will need to look at in the next weeks again.

"We have another new recruit in Dan [Fallows], as you are probably aware, so we will have to sit together and identify clearly how we develop the car, how we develop the performance and how we develop the structure of the team.

"I think it's six or seven weeks [he has been in charge], so it's still new, but it's up to me to take the necessary steps to talk to most people, try to identify where we are and what we have to improve and move on.

"I'm not the kind of guy who looks for excuses."