No Aston Martin timeframe as Alonso reveals AMR26 upgrade reality

Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack has refused to commit to an AMR26 upgrade timeline after Fernando Alonso admitted the team is prepared to wait for a major breakthrough rather than chase marginal gains.

Aston Martin was the only Formula 1 team that didn’t bring a single performance-related part to the Miami Grand Prix, a weekend in which Ferrari brought 11 new parts and McLaren and Red Bull introduced seven apiece.

Mike Krack refuses Aston Martin AMR26 upgrade timeline

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The Silverstone-based team has instead been focused on improving the reliability of the AMR26.

Having resolved the engine vibration issues that plagued the Honda-powered AMR26, the team has now made the gearbox “fix number one” on its list.

Only then will Aston Martin turn its attention to performance — though even that comes with a caveat.

“I’m at peace because I understand the situation,” Alonso told PlanetF1.com and other media in Miami.

“The team explained to me that if we bring one or two tenths every race, it doesn’t change our position, we are P20 or P19, and the next car is one second in front.

“So, even if we bring two tenths every race, it doesn’t change our position and it’s a huge stress in the system, in the budget cap and things like that.

“Until we have one second and a half or two second improvements, it’s better not to press the button in production because we waste money.”

He added: “I think we are all relaxed, we are all committed to after summer having a better second half of the year, and let’s see if we can do that.”

That, however, means Aston Martin could be in for a trying period with seven races still remaining before Formula 1’s summer break.

That timeline was put to Krack when he spoke with the media after the Miami Grand Prix.

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“I think we have obviously seen over the last weeks and months – it’s not that long – the way, especially we have made steps on the reliability and on the reduction of the vibration, on the improvement of the drivability,” he said. “I think we have already seen quite substantial upgrades so far, and we have to continue to work on that line.

“So I will not get drawn into next race, the race after, or whatever is going to come.

“But I think we have shown that we had a lot of problems when the season started, extraordinary problems, but I think the speed in how they were resolved was quite remarkable.

“I think we can hope. We can count on getting more, but we also must acknowledge that it is a big gap to close.”

Told that Alonso had ruled out any major upgrades for the AMR26 until the summer, Krack explained: “You have to acknowledge what the strategy is and what is the plan.

“Our job at the track here is to get the maximum of what you have. I think we can safely say that we are not optimal with everything. You just mentioned optimum execution today, which we didn’t have for one or another reason. I think we did well, but we could have done better.

“I think the same applies to energy, the same applies to drivability. So we have a lot to extract from this package the way it is at the moment.

“It’s important that we keep everybody motivated to work on that.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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