Aston Martin boss reveals main weakness of their 2022 car
Aston Martin’s Mike Krack believes the AMR22 has a specific weakness, despite rolling out updates recently.
Aston Martin introduced a major upgrade for their AMR22 at the Spanish Grand Prix, sending their car to a similar design philosophy to that of Red Bull.
However, the team have still struggled for pace more often than not, despite Sebastian Vettel‘s strong run to sixth place in Azerbaijan that has been the high point of the team’s season so far.
Lance Stroll finished 10th in Canada before Vettel added some more points to increase the team’s tally to 18 for the season – meaning Aston Martin are second from bottom in the Constructors’ Championship.
Team boss Krack spoke about Aston Martin’s lack of performance during a press conference at the Austrian Grand Prix, saying recent tracks haven’t played to their strengths.
“Obviously, we all know we had not a very good start [to the season],” he told reporters.
“I think the last races before Silverstone, we had tracks that were suiting the characteristic of the car. But now, the last two tracks, they have really shown again, a bit better picture of where we are standing. And we simply are not performing enough. We’ve seen it in Silverstone. We have seen it yesterday. And we need to find our way out of there. We need to work ourselves out.”
Over the first 11 races of the season, Krack explained that a particular characteristic of the AMR22 has been uncovered – namely, the car doesn’t like high-speed corners. He revealed that the driver’s main complaints are “always about grip and balance”.
“So obviously, when you push it really hard – which I always think when you have a car that is not quick enough, you over push or you try to over push – so you have balance problems, but also we have had sessions where to go faster, you need more grip,” he said.
“So, we struggled in high-speed, in all high-speed areas. In Canada, there were less of them, in Baku, there were less of them. [The] car is quite okay, I think, in the low-speed. And yeah, it’s mainly low-speed corners. But as soon as it goes high-speed, we are lacking.”
Both Stroll and Vettel have earned the praise of Krack for their diligent approach to trying to fix the team’s problems, with the team boss saying there has been little complaint from either.
“I think both drivers, we really have to say hats-off, how they cope with it, how constructive they still are with us,” he revealed.
“There is no bad word, nothing at all. We try to do this together, try to get out together, they give us very good feedback. And it would be easy for them to get frustrated but this is not what happens. Both Lance and Sebastian, they’re very constructive in all the meetings and you could not sense any lack of pushing or motivation from the current situation.”
Given that the car’s main weakness has been identified, Krack said it’s not so bad that he fears heading to any particular venues in the second half of the season, such as the high-speed sweeps of Spa-Francorchamps.
“Personally, I’m looking forward to all the tracks because I think it’s the reason why we are all here,” he said.
“So there is not one track where I would say ‘I don’t want to go there because the car performance is bad’. So, it’s a challenge.
“We knew when we went to Silverstone, or when we came here, that is going to be tough but still you try to do the maximum and try to do as best as you can and move the car as far forward as possible. And if it doesn’t work, as you expect, you have to do harder next time.”