Aston Martin trio speaks on the F1 team getting three podiums in three races which was unthinkable after how 2022 went for them.
At the start of the F1 2023 season, Fernando Alonso predicted that Aston Martin could be in for a good season if they do well in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Australia which is three different types of circuits throwing different sets of challenges.
And with the three races done and dusted, by sheer pace and some luck too, Aston Martin has got three podiums against their name and they have already overhauled their points accumulation from the whole of 2022 F1 season in first three races.
It is a start that was unthinkable for Aston Martin even though they quietly hoped it to be the case. But now that they have done it, they are looking good for the rest of season especially in the race for second in the constructors’ championship.
Here’s Aston Martin trio speaking about the situation –
Mike Krack: “Yes that is definitely true, three circuits with three different characteristics, to be competitive in all three is obviously means we are confident as we can be at other circuits. The range of circuits is very different, we have Baku with huge straights and then you have Monaco with no straights, so all these kind of things it will always shift the field left and right and this is why I am always saying we must be careful now to draw too many conclusions from one race event.
“Then also when you saw in Australia, the race strategy and how it played out then you just had to manage, you do not even get a representation of the pace, that’s why I am always very careful to be too firm in conclusions. Overall, yes, it’s fantastic. If I was asked before if someone tells you, you will have three podiums after the first three races I would have not believed it either. It shows also what a champion we have in Alonso too. He’s just incredible, the way his consistency. If you look at all the sessions so far throughout the year he has always been there, in every session, in every FP1, FP2, he’ll always up there and pushes the maximum all the time.”
Lance Stroll: “For sure. I don’t think we were quite as quick in Australia as we were at the first couple of races. Alpine was actually pretty quick in front of me and then Carlos had a strong race and I don’t think we had the edge on the competitors, but still we were solid all weekend and it was a good result.”
Fernando Alonso: “I mean, incredible. It really made me feel happy for the boys and girls in the team. But I think Mercedes they’ve been also strong in Jeddah, to be honest. I think all the race on Sunday, I was within one tenth of George, fighting to get this extra five seconds or whatever at the end so it was very, very close. It seems that qualifying is quite important now, because race pace is very similar and I think now we enter into a part of the season that is going to be very interesting: which team is developing the car faster? I think the first three races being away from Europe, it’s difficult to bring upgrades and things like that.
“But from now on, maybe we see the level of the teams changing a little bit, race-by-race, depending on who brings an upgrade that is good enough. I don’t know, for us, it’s all happy days at the moment. We never expected to be on the podium, maybe even throughout the season and in three races we have three. So everything that comes now is a plus but we should take every opportunity, we need to learn and we need to grow as a team also maybe now off-track because we are racing against Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, teams that are used to this kind of pace of development and things like that. And maybe we are just in a learning process. So we take this 2023 in a very humble manner and let’s see how it’s going.”
Here’s Aston Martin crediting Sebastian Vettel
Here’s Fernando Alonso on cat and mouse game with Lewis Hamilton
Here’s Sebastian Vettel becoming lead investor
