Krack has a similar professional path to McLaren team president Andreas Seidl, having started his career with BMW in Formula One.
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Following the resignation of Otmar Szafnauer earlier this month, former BMW motorsport chief Mike Krack has been named the new team principal of Aston Martin in Formula 1. Krack has a similar professional path to McLaren team president Andreas Seidl, having started his career with BMW in Formula One before moving on to other disciplines. In the works BMW era, he joined Sauber in 2001 and climbed to the role of chief engineer, spending time with current Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel.
After leaving Sauber in 2009, he worked in F3 and the DTM before joining the Porsche WEC team in 2012 as head of track engineering, alongside Seidl. In 2014, he rejoined BMW as an engineer, advancing to the post of head of race and test engineering, operations, and organisation in 2018.
Lawrence Stroll, the team’s owner, and Group CEO Martin Whitmarsh, who was appointed late last year, will oversee Krack’s work. Marcin Budkowski had been connected to an Aston Martin post before his departure from Alpine was confirmed yesterday.
“Aston Martin is one of the greatest automotive brands in the world,” said Krack. “And to have been asked to play a leading role in delivering the on track success that such an illustrious name so richly deserves is a challenge that I plan to embrace with energy and enthusiasm.”
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“I have been working in motorsport for over 20 years, and worked in F1 with Seb Vettel in 2006 and 2007 when I was a BMW Sauber engineer and he was the team’s test driver. “I have huge respect for his speed and ability, and it will be fantastic to be reunited with him. Lance Stroll is a seriously fast and talented driver, too, with 100 Grands Prix starts to his name, and I am very much looking forward to working closely with him.”
“Team Silverstone has always impressed me. It is full of talented people and real racers. That racer’s culture and values are what is required to succeed in motorsport – I know that and my new colleagues at Aston Martin know it, too. We will work incredibly hard. We want to win. Together, we will,” he concluded.
BMW moved quickly to name Andreas Roos as its new head of motorsport programmes, starting from February 1. Roos was hired from Audi, where he was previously in charge of the DTM programme before taking over project management of the company’s factory motorsport division, which includes the future LMDh project and the Dakar Rally.
