It's a significant improvement over the Silverstone team's P7 constructors' championship finish from the previous year, but wins are what Stroll Senior really wants.
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If anyone had asked Aston Martin’s Team Principal Mike Krack before the season began, he might have said that three podium finishes from three races was beyond his wildest expectations, but it appears that the team’s owner Lawrence Stroll is a little more difficult to please. Fernando Alonso has placed third in each of the team’s first three races, moving them up to second place in the standings, 39 points ahead of Ferrari and nine points ahead of Mercedes. It’s a significant improvement over the Silverstone team’s P7 constructors’ championship finish from the previous year, but wins are what Stroll Senior really wants, and Krack knows he has his work cut out for him to deliver one.
“The [team’s] mission is very clear,” said Krack. “[Stroll] has not been having any delay in telling us ‘When are we going to win the next one?’ Obviously, he is happy we have made a step, but this is not enough for his ambitions. The good thing is with Laurence [Stroll] is you know where you stand – he wants more, and we will have to deliver more.”
That victory will be no easy task considering rival Red Bull has so far this year been competitive at every track. The defending champions have experienced some reliability issues, but Krack believes they still have a chance if they can get the most out of their package given the variety of track types still to come. “[We’ve had] three circuits with three characteristics. To be competitive on all three, we are confident we can be on other circuits as well,” he said.
“But you know the range of circuits is now very different: you have Baku with huge straight and then you Monaco with no straights. These kinds of things will always shift the field a little bit. And this can happen when you have such small margins, it can happen. It’s the situation we are in and I’ve said it before, we have to be at maximum at all times, at 100% to get [the most] out of it.”
Toto Wolff is optimistic about Mercedes’ progress after Lewis Hamilton secured the Silver Arrows’ first podium finish of the year in Melbourne, but he is troubled by the “mind-boggling” speed gap between the W14 and Red Bull’s RB19. At Albert Park, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualified in positions two and three, respectively. Both drivers got off to a quick start and passed Max Verstappen on the opening lap. Russell and Hamilton then led the race for the first seven laps in a Mercedes one-two.
“I think we made a good step forward this weekend on both single lap and race pace,” the Austrian said. “Is this where our baseline needs to be? I’m not sure. I think we maximised what we have. I think it was good to see we were racing Ferrari and Aston Martin, and we just need to consolidate that. And the more we learn about the car, and bring the upgrade packages, we can challenge the leaders more.”
