Mike Krack says Aston Martin AMR26 problems span all areas of the car
After a disrupted pre-season, Mike Krack has admitted Aston Martin has work to do across the AMR26.
Mike Krack has said Aston Martin’s current problems are not isolated to one specific area of the AMR26, as the team has started the season on the back foot.
Aston Martin endured a very difficult pre-season testing programme, having taken to the track with just over a day remaining of the Barcelona test, before reliability issues stunted the team’s programme in Bahrain.
Mike Krack: Aston Martin is not at the level of the others
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Bahrain testing shone a light on the extent of Aston Martin’s early-season woes, with constant reliability issues hampering the team’s ability to rack up significant mileage.
This meant that, after the three pre-season tests, Aston Martin had only completed 400 laps, just half the distance of what Williams achieved (790 laps), despite the Grove-based squad sitting out Barcelona entirely. Cadillac, as a brand-new team, achieved 750.
With just a third of the mileage accumulated of the likes of Mercedes, Haas, Ferrari, and McLaren, the extent of the challenge awaiting Aston Martin becomes even more apparent when looked at from the perspective of the power unit.
With Aston Martin being the only squad to run the Honda power unit, its 400-lap tally is less than 10 per cent of Mercedes’ High-Performance Powertrains (powering four teams), 13 per cent of Ferrari’s (powering three teams), 20 per cent of Red Bull Powertrains (two teams), and 40 per cent of Audi’s (one team).
It’s left Adrian Newey’s squad on the back foot at the start of the new season, with the team appearing to be little further advanced than beyond what might be expected at the end of an extended shakedown, with no possibility yet of focusing on performance and optimisation.
Aston Martin’s chief trackside officer, Mike Krack, said he’s hopeful the extent of the issues is that they are teething problems.
“Yeah, I think that is good judgment,” he said in the press conference on Wednesday in Bahrain, when asked if he believes his squad are enduring a period of growing pains with a new power unit partner.
Alongside integrating the new Honda power unit, after 17 years working with Mercedes power units and gearboxes, Aston Martin has also had to create its own gearbox for the first time.
“You need reliability. The wheels need to turn. We didn’t manage to keep the wheels turning as much as we wanted,” Krack continued.
“You learn every lap and, every lap you don’t do, you miss, and you have to play catch-up. So not a fantastic start.
“I think we acknowledge that we have work to do. We understand that we are not at the level that others might be.
“But everything is new. Partnerships [such as Honda], we do the gearbox, we do the rear suspension – that is a big exercise.
“I hope it is beginning problems, teething problems. But, even if the start is difficult, it doesn’t mean that there is less work to do, or that we can relax, or anything.
“We have to focus, look at our problems, and solve them, step-by-step.”
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While the unreliability of the Honda power unit has compromised Aston Martin’s ability to run on track and gather lessons about other areas of the car, Krack said the issues aren’t isolated solely to the Japanese manufacturer’s own early problems.
“We have to acknowledge that we were late to the party. We saw it in Barcelona. It was good that we went to Barcelona, but we were not really ready,” he said.
“We got the car going. And then a similar thing happened at the beginning of the [Bahrain] test here.
“You have a lot of little problems that prevent you from running, and they are in all areas of the car. We have new electronics, we have new partners, we have a new gearbox, and we have new suspension.
“So, it is difficult to isolate one single area. That would be the easiest because, if you have just one item to fix, you can put all your efforts on that.
“So I think it is probably lateness that put us into a bit more difficult situation on the reliability side.
“But I said it earlier, if you do not accumulate the laps, and I think we have three times fewer laps than some of the best competitors, that puts you behind.
“You have to be realistic about it, and then you need to catch up. There’s no other way, but they are not waiting for us, so we need to really do our best not to lose touch.”
As for whether more could have been done to prevent Aston Martin’s unreadiness for the start of the new season, team spokesperson Pedro de la Rosa said any one of a number of factors could have had an impact, but said none of the factors are an excuse for the situation.
“Looking back is always easy, you know, in terms of what we should have [done], but ‘should have’ doesn’t work in motorsport,” he said.
“If we had possibly started earlier, if Adrian had been here a few months earlier, if Honda hadn’t gone and then come back, it’s ifs and buts.
“The bottom line is we are slow. We are not where we want to be. Let’s get a plan together. We know exactly what’s wrong and work on it, you know?
“So let’s look ahead, not look back. ‘What went wrong? What did we do?’
“It’s very easy to blame the time and that we started late. There were many reasons. The important thing is that we know what they are, really.
“That’s what gives us the confidence that we will… we don’t know if it will be next month or [when], but, slowly, gradually, the difference will shrink.”
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