Aston confirm further developments to come on AMR22

Sam Cooper
Mike Krack talks to an Aston Martin colleague. Melbourne April 2022.

Mike Krack talks to an Aston Martin colleague at the Australian Grand Prix. Melbourne April 2022.

Aston Martin boss Mike Krack said the team will continue to work on the 2022 car despite half of the season being over already.

Of the 10 teams on the 2022 F1 grid, Aston Martin are perhaps enduring the most disappointing season. Since their rebrand from Racing Point in 2021, the team has been unable to hit the same kind of highs as they once had under the previous name.

They started 2022 with Sebastian Vettel missing the first two races due to COVID and found themselves with one of the slowest cars on the grid. Aston Martin then unveiled a heavily upgraded car at the Spanish Grand Prix and, despite protests from Red Bull that the new car bore a striking resemblance to their own, it did show an improved performance.

Vettel finished as high as sixth in Baku but the team has still been unable to extract what they believe is the top performance from the car.

With the season at the halfway point, teams are beginning to shift their focus for 2023 but Krack confirmed that was not the case for the Silverstone-based outfit. He described it as a “tough call” but said they “do not want to continue this year on this level of performance.”

“Yes, we want to continue developing this car,” he told F1.com. “Obviously we need to respect the financial implications that we are having – but we have a plan in place that we made a while ago that we are trying to follow as much as we can.

“Obviously you always have to adjust it depending on what is your wind tunnel result, what is your latest race result, but we’re very confident that we can improve it further, and we will do so race by race.

“We need to balance now what are we going to do with the current car, and how much of a compromise do we take in continuing with the current car and going into the next one?

“It’s a tough call, but… we’re only halfway into the season, we must not forget. We do not want to continue this year on this level of performance.”

Looking to the future, Aston Martin hope it will be Vettel in the seat and Krack said he is “confident” will keep the four-time World Champion on board. 

“We are in talks. Sebastian is very positive, very constructive, so from that point of view I really hope we can continue.

“Also, maybe the investment he has made now over two years, he should also maybe be in a position to get something from it and not hand it to someone else later. But we are confident we can make this a success with the talks we are having.”

Could Vettel walk away from Aston Martin?

Aston Martin want to keep Sebastian Vettel, but if their performance does not pick up, it's difficult to see him sticking around.