Aston Martin Must Stay ‘Realistic’ in Sixth-Place Battle with Alfa Romeo – Mike Krack

Mike Krack says the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team are remaining realistic as they look to hunt down Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN and take sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship in 2022 despite a recent surge in points thanks to productive weekends in Singapore and Japan.

Aston Martin have scored twenty-six points across the past two races at the Marina Bay Street Circuit and Suzuka International Racing Course to close the gap to Alfa Romeo to just seven points with four races remaining of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.

Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel finished sixth and eighth respectively in Singapore, and his was followed up by another sixth place for Vettel in Japan.  A little bit of form for Aston Martin has come in a spell where Alfa Romeo have scored just one point in the past nine races.

Krack, the Team Principal at Aston Martin, says the team has confidence at this stage of the season, but realistically, they do not have a strong car, and although they have scored big in the past two races, there is no guarantees this will continue across the final four races of the season.

“Confidence is not everything, you also have to have a quick car,” said Krack to Motorsport.com. “Because with confidence alone, we don’t do much.

“We know where we are with our car, we have made some steps over the year. But still, in a regular race, we will struggle to finish sixth.

“We need to stay realistic. There’s four more to go. If we manage to score or to continue scoring, there’s a chance that we can still grab a position.  But the situation can also turn quickly. If one of the rival teams is scoring significantly, then also we could lose a position.

“It’s four races, it’s still long, and we need to really keep our game up. But certainly, I think in the 12 last races, we have scored 10 times. I think you can see that we are on a good progression.”

Krack says there are possibilities for Aston Martin to score points across the final four races, and he does not see any track that could be a really bad one for the team, although none of the tracks are similar to ones where they have been the strongest in 2022.

“The next races are all very similar, in terms of characteristics,” Krack said.  “They are not the kind of Baku, Singapore and Monaco track. So it will be more difficult for us than the ones I mentioned.

“We could have rain in Sao Paulo, we have a sprint in Sao Paulo as well. So there are still some opportunities.

“There is no track now that is upcoming where we think it would be really bad for us. So let’s see.”