Aston Martin still cautious despite early pace

Aston Martin boss Mike Krack is still wary of drawing conclusions on where his team sits despite having proved competitive in the opening three races.

The Silverstone squad has been one of the season’s stand-out performers, improving from the midfield last season to genuine front runners in 2023.

Fernando Alonso has delivered the team a podium in all three races of the year. He is one of just two drivers to have finished in the top three at every event.

That’s come across a variety of circuit styles and configurations, giving confidence that the AMR23 is a fundamentally sound car.

However, Krack isn’t getting too excited beyond accepting the surface-level observation at this point.

“Three circuits with three different characteristics, and to be competitive on all three, obviously we are confident we can be on other circuits as well,” Krack began.

“But the range of circuits is very different.

“Now you have Baku with a huge straight and then you have Monaco with no straight.

“So it’s all these kinds of things – it will always shift the field a bit left and right.

“That is why I’m always saying we must be careful to draw too many conclusions from one race event.”

In Australia, Alonso was beaten to the flag by Lewis Hamilton, though suggested he had a pace advantage over the Mercedes.

“I think when you do 50 laps within two seconds of the car in front, normally you have a little bit more [pace],” the Spaniard reasoned.

“Probably you can get two or three-tenths out of that lap time, but I could not get any closer than that.”

Alonso has suggested qualifying will become increasingly important as the sport approaches the start of its European season.

Mercedes and Ferrari have typically had the advantage, supported by analysis completed by Speedcafe which showed the Aston Martin as just the fourth fastest F1 car on a single lap.

“We speak about very, very small margins, like a gust [of wind] here or a little oversteer here can decide for the position,” Krack said.

“I think in Qualifying 2 we had the little bit upper hand, but in Quali 3 it flipped around,” he added of the Australian Grand Prix weekend.

“But this happens when you have such close and so small margins.

“It’s a situation that we are in and we have to be maximum at all times, we have to be at 100 percent to get the best out of it.”