Fernando Alonso raced to the podium with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen at the Australian Grand Prix. The team’s leader Mike Krack thinks that Fernando Alonso has made a really big difference this season, helping Aston Martin get closer to the victory stand. He added that the 41-year-old two-time champion has had a great impact on their car, too.
Krack says that Fernando brings a lot of determination and enthusiasm to the team. He sets an example by showing up early in the morning and leaving late at night. His good attitude encourages everyone else on the team. That’s why it’s much easier to get work done when the driver is also pushing himself.
“These are small changes, but they help us understand that someone is serious and committed to our team. It motivates all of us to try hard and give it our best effort, because seeing someone work so hard makes us want to do the same.”
Tom McCullough, the performance director, says that Fernando Alonso’s ability to communicate precisely and use few words has been very helpful for the team as they try to improve their car.
He explained that the wealth of experience Alonso has means he can effectively tell people what he wants from the car, the team, etc.
He’s experienced it all and is quite knowledgeable when he speaks, so it’s important to pay attention. He really wants this project to succeed, which is why he suggests that we look into weak topics and areas for improvement.
He also has an amazing talent for talking in a way that people can understand easily and will react positively to, making him a great leader – and nowadays lots of people are listening to his words.
How Aston Martin Jumped from Slowest to Best with Dan and Eric’s Unconventional Ideas
Alonso had planned to stay with Alpine, the team he helped take to fourth place last year. But when French team refused to offer him a two-year contract he wanted, his patience ran out and he quickly signed with Aston Martin after Sebastian Vettel left. Later, he drove last year’s Aston Martin in Abu Dhabi and was surprised that it was much better than what he expected.
Alonso thought he wouldn’t have such great performance with Aston Martin until next year, but then he put lots of effort in his new team. Krack said Alonso kept trying so hard, which motivated everyone to do the same – everybody wanted to succeed and win!
F1 teams usually grow slowly and steadily. James Vowles, the new Williams team principal, talked about his big job in Bahrain Grand Prix at the start of this season. When someone mentioned that Aston Martin had made a huge improvement, he said it was because they had an amazing driver.
No matter how talented a driver is, their performance can still be affected by the car they are using. Aston Martin’s recent success didn’t come out of nowhere; it came from carefully investing and restructuring for four years, which included hiring some new people.
Krack is an important person who joined Aston Martin when a wealthy Canadian guy named Lawrence Stroll bought the team in the summer of 2018. Back then, it was called Force India but Stroll renamed the team Racing Point and finally changed the name to Aston Martin after he took over an amazing British car business.
The team placed seventh in two consecutive years, 2021 and 2022. But their progress over the past year has been remarkable. During Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, Alonso surprisingly raced for a second place finish against Lewis Hamilton driving his Mercedes! Last season when they arrived least at Melbourne, Aston Martin had the slowest car among all teams. This sent them back to the drawing board which eventually resulted in their enhanced performance this season.
Krack said: “We wanted to find out what weaknesses we had and how should we fix them one at a time, not with any kind of miracle”.
He also expressed that some serious changes and improvements had happened by next year.
Vettel and his teammate Lance Stroll (Lawrence’s son) were competing closely with Alpine and McLaren during the last season to determine who would finish fourth in their racing championship.
Krack believes that Aston Martin have been given an advantage because Ferrari and Mercedes didn’t make enough progress during the winter.
Krack thinks that this allowed Aston Martin to move up by two positions, while others improved by only one or two places.
However, this is underestimating all of the work Aston Martin put in to achieve these results.
Over the last 4 races in 2022, Aston Martin cars were 1.546 seconds slower than Red Bull’s cars on average when it comes to qualifying. But for the first 3 races of this season, that time gap has decreased to only 0.5 seconds.
This is really impressive because Red Bull have one the best racing cars ever made!
Aston Martin have also been able to keep up with Ferrari and Mercedes who are similarly going slower than Red Bull.
Krack has been leading the team since February 2022, when the former leader of the team Otmar Szafnauer left. In September 2021, Stroll hired Martin Whitmarsh from McLaren as the CEO. The big improvements made to their car have been largely in charge of Dan Fallows and Eric Blandin – his assistant.
In June 2021, Fallows joined the team after leaving Red Bull as the head of aerodynamics. Blandin agreed to join in November 2021 and he started working with us by July of last year. Both of them were hired by our Chief Technical Officer, Andrew Green who gave up his role with our F1 team during the winter time.
Krack is explaining how two people, Dan and Eric, were able to get more out of the team they worked with. He says that instead of telling them what to do, Dan and Eric left room for creativity. This means that they gave their team some freedom to think for themselves and use their own ideas in their work.
Krack says that it takes strong management skills to give people confidence and help them find their own solutions. This needs an understanding of guiding others in a unique way instead of just telling them what to do.
The two people, Fallows and Blandin, who were hired to work in Formula 1 for 2022 came from teams that had completely different ways of doing things. Amazingly though, their differing processes seem to have worked very well together.
McCullough states that the idea behind hiring them was to get a good mix of ideas from the best F1 teams at the time.
“We’re always asking ourselves: ‘What are we doing and what is the best way to do it?’
Dan believes that we should go our own way in order to be successful; not just follow how other teams do things. We have to figure out what’s right for us based on our knowledge. Doing our own thing can help us achieve great results.”
When Krack joined Aston Martin, he was thrilled about it and said that he would give his full energy and enthusiasm to overcome the challenge.
Racing Point’s Journey From Mid-Level to TopSpot
Moving from being a mid-level team and not often winning to now competing frequently for the top spot requires a different type of thinking. Krack explains that everyone involved needs to recognize this change in mindset and it has to be discussed on all levels. It won’t happen overnight.
To do great things, you and your team need to have moments of achievement. These moments will give you confidence in yourself and everyone else. To reach these successes, it’s best to keep it simple and use the resources that you already have – don’t try to create something new.
McCullough has been with the team for 10 years, and he knows that success is still within their reach.
Racing Point was pretty good in 2020! They were even able to win a race with their car, nicknamed the “pink Mercedes” and driven by Sergio Perez. Despite all the changes going on at the management level, the team still remained unchanged at its core. According to McCullough, they just have to wait until everyone else has pitted and then they can go ahead and pit too.
Being in the middle of the pack isn’t easy because you need to race faster. However, if you make a wrong decision it will be very noticeable. Being able to make good choices when it comes to strategy matters whether you get on the podium or even win the race.
Right now, Red Bull is winning a lot more races than us. But if we’re smart and careful, over the 23 races, we can definitely do better. That’s why we have to make good choices and keep our cars working properly so that we can do as well as when Sergio won in Bahrain. This shows how far Aston Martin has come.
The team has gone through a tough year, but they have eventually been scoring regularly on the podium and may even win this year! They know that Red Bull need to have some trouble for them to get the win. All of this progress is really great and their owner Stroll wants even more from them.
When Krack is asked about Stroll’s reaction to his recent success, he smiles and says that things have completely changed. Lawrence aims for the best and always wants to know how they can get to the front as quickly as possible. He doesn’t take it slow or give compliments; instead he does everything with a purpose to reach what he desires most.
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