Mike Krack wants Aston Martin to copy ‘beautiful’ changes £1.6bn F1 team made this year

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Aston Martin went into the 2024 Formula 1 season hoping to emulate the success they had achieved the previous year.

Fernando Alonso took the risk of switching Alpine for Aston Martin and was immediately rewarded.

Team principal Mike Krack was leading an outfit that were Red Bull’s closest rivals at the beginning of the campaign.

Alonso managed to secure six podium finishes in the first eight races and his move appeared to be a masterstroke.

However, the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren all took significant steps forward throughout the campaign while Aston Martin struggled.

A fantastic drive at Zandvoort saw Alonso return to the podium before an epic battle in Brazil led to a valuable third-place finish.

Unfortunately, Aston Martin have only gone backwards since then and while they remain fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, the gap to Mercedes above them stands at nearly 250 points.

Krack was speaking to Formu1a.uno about how Aston Martin have developed their car this year and where they’ve gone wrong.

Alonso has been a frustrated figure throughout the season while his teammate Lance Stroll is on a run of five races without a point.

The midfield battle was tightened even further since the summer break, meaning only Alonso’s individual brilliance has kept the team’s points tally ticking over.

Krack believes Aston Martin have to take inspiration from McLaren and how they’ve gone from near the back of the grid at the beginning of last year to the top of the team standings.

Mike Krack tells Aston Martin to take inspiration from ‘beautiful’ McLaren update

Talking about where Aston Martin are in terms of their car developments, Krack said: “We were at Mercedes’ level at the start of the season, for the first few races.

“So you can make substantial steps forward with these regulations if you keep the car stable and behave the way the drivers want.

“It’s not the pure race for downforce that we used to do, where it was really difficult to close the gap.

“Here it’s more about getting stability, balance and, of course, downforce as well.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Aston Martin F1 Team from team principal to lineage

“If you compare the pace and you see when they’ve made a step and you try to correlate that with some improvements, those are stated, because you never get the full picture.

“But there are some correlations where you can see, okay, this is what’s been changed and what has it potentially done?

“And then you see, for example, the Zandvoort update, it’s a bit here, a bit there, a bit there.

“So you see how beautiful and complex these cars have become. And I think it would be foolish not to look at that.”

McLaren chasing first Constructors’ Championship since 1998 after incredible developments

Andrea Stella and Zak Brown have led the £1.6bn-valued F1 team exceptionally well, hiring all the right people and putting their faith in two exceptional drivers.

Rob Marshall’s arrival from Red Bull appears to be particularly significant although every aspect of the McLaren seems to be working in tandem and heading the right direction.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

While other teams have struggled to implement new parts, Stella asked McLaren to back him when delaying installing a new floor.

Balance appears to be even more critical than raw speed and downforce in this era of cars, something other teams are only understanding now.

Aston Martin’s developments simply haven’t worked in 2024, and Alonso is adamant that the team can’t wait for Adrian Newey to arrive in March next year to solve all of their issues.

He also doesn’t want to wait until 2026 to be competitive again but convincing Aston Martin to heavily invest in the final year of a set of regulations might be easier said than done.