Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack has taken a moment to reflect on the Silverstone operation’s underwhelming performance across the 2024 campaign, admitting they fell significantly short of expectations.
Aston Martin returned to F1 as a works outfit in 2021 and placed seventh in the constructors’ standings at the end of their first two seasons, while team owner Lawrence Stroll invested heavily via a new factory and an array of key hires.
In early 2023, that investment appeared to be paying off as the AMR23 sensationally claimed six podium finishes from the opening eight races at the hands of two-time champion Fernando Alonso, who had arrived at the squad over the winter.
After their early challenge faded, Aston Martin regrouped and pushed ahead with a car they hoped would take the fight to the likes of Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes in 2024, only to finish the year in a distant fifth position.
Indeed, after racking up eight podiums and 280 points last season, Aston Martin did not reach the rostrum once this time out, while only taking home 94 points.
Aston Martin were unable to build on their impressive 2023 season
Asked if Aston Martin understood what didn’t click with their latest challenger, and what they need to do differently for 2025, Krack said: “Yes, I think all in all a difficult season comes to an end. We had higher expectations.
“I think we started where realistically we thought we would be as a team. We wanted to close the gap to the teams in front of us. It went rather the other direction, we were caught by the midfield to which we had quite a substantial gap at the beginning of the year, so that is why we can’t be happy with how it went.
“But we have also learned our lessons in terms of what we have to do differently going forward, and we are full steam [ahead] on next year’s car to make it a better contender [than] the one we have now.”
Krack also touched on last month’s news that Dan Fallows had stepped down from his role as Aston Martin’s Technical Director, which coincided with the AMR24 failing to deliver.
It comes as F1 design guru Adrian Newey and former Ferrari technical chief Enrico Cardile get set to join the team alongside recent appointment Andy Cowell, who took over from Martin Whitmarsh as CEO.
Krack admits Aston Martin had ‘higher expectations’ from 2024 season
“Like many professional sports, the only thing that matters is the result, the performance on track, or the performance on the pitch, or the performance wherever,” said Krack.
“If the performance is not there, the structures are making changes, and this is what has happened here – simple as that.”
Asked if further tweaks can be expected ahead of Newey’s arrival, Krack added: “Yeah, I think we have now had the arrival of Andy, we have the arrival of Enrico and also the arrival of Adrian, and as a team we have to elaborate the structure, especially the technical structure, that allows all of them to get the best out of them.
“Some discussions that we are having intensively at the moment is how are we going to do that, and I hope that the day they arrive that this is all properly defined.”
Amid those technical changes, Aston Martin will continue with an unchanged driver line-up in 2025 – Alonso having committed to a new deal alongside team mate Lance Stroll.