After Melbourne, Mike Krack, new team principal of the team based in Silverstone expressed his opinion on the difficult situation they are experiencing. With the budget cap to meet, disappointing results, and crashes that have restricted the number of components available, Aston Martin will necessarily have to revise its plans for updates for 2022. Updates that the team badly needs, but which are now at risk.
“We had a very difficult weekend because we had a lot of damage to the cars. We started already on Friday, a small problem on the power unit, which we had to change. So we didn't have much time. Then the accidents on the track. Everyone saw that they really gave us a lot of work."
In Melbourne, several teams made progress, Williams itself conquered its first point of the season, leaving Aston Martin the only team that has not yet brought a driver into the top 10. Stroll came close but it wasn't enough.
“I think when we arrived in Melbourne we all thought we were going to be stronger than the first two outings of the season. But of course we couldn't show it because we had a lot of trouble."
“At the end of the race we were still in the position where we could hope to bring home points, but in the end it didn't happen. overall it was a pretty disappointing weekend, I have to say”.
But there is not only the disappointment of unsatisfactory results. The concern concerns the budget cap and the resources available to the team, which had to work on the single-seaters several times this weekend. On Friday, the Power Unit change after a fire on Sebastian Vettel's car. On Saturday, still in free practice, both crashed, forcing the mechanics to an almost impossible job to repair the single-seaters in time for qualifying in a very limited time. The work, finished just as time expired, proved to be in vain when Stroll's single-seater collided with Latifi's immediately after returning to the track. Then on Sunday, the icing on the cake arrives, Vettel's accident which puts the word "end" to a disastrous weekend for the German driver, who returned after missing the first two races of the season due to testing positive for Covid-19.
The team, in evident difficulty both from the point of view of performance and in replacing damaged parts, in particular the suspension and front wing, runs the risk of having to concentrate resources on these aspects rather than on preparing updates, whether for Imola or for the next steps.
“Now we have to collect all the parts we have, as we are starting to run out of spare parts. It's something we have to deal with."
“I'm pretty sure you've counted the amount of crashes, front wings and front suspension we've damaged. Thus we can quickly calculate how many we will need to go to Imola and, in fact, yes, the question is correct. Will we have the ability to develop or will we have to use our resources to make spare parts? It's an ongoing discussion." Krack concluded.
Source: Motorsport.com
