31/08/2023
NEWS STORY
Aston Martin boss, Mike Krack insists that there is no discernible difference in the levels of performance between drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
Of course, when said driver's father is the owner of the team, and your boss, some might be tempted to agree, but the fact is that after 13 races the Spaniard sits third in the title fight with 168 points and his Canadian teammate ninth on 47.
Furthermore, while Stroll's best result is a 4th in Melbourne, Alonso has scored seven podium finishes including a second just one week ago in Holland.
Nonetheless, Krack insists there is little to choose between the pair.
"There is not a marked gap in performance," he told reporters at Monza, "there is a marked gap in points.
"It's important to separate between the two," he continued. "We, as a team, are analysing the season from both perspectives, from both drivers, and I think we as a team need to do a much, much better job on that side of the garage come race strategy but also we had reliability issues and it was always hitting that car, so that is something we need to do much, much better.
"I think, in general, between drivers there is always a certain gap that you would say is, I would say not normal, but circumstantial," he added. "Sometimes you have a bit of traffic, sometimes one has a glitch in one corner, but I think the drivers are normally within three tenths.
"I think when you look at the last qualifying sessions, Q1 in Zandvoort, for example, there was nothing in between them, so I don't think that there is any particular characteristic of the car that will be different for him than for Fernando.
"I think he can be just the same;" he insisted. "You saw it last year, we had all this discussion when Sebastian joined the team and I think it went pretty well. There is no reason why it should not be the same. It was the same before when we had a four-time world champion, so we don't look at it like you do in terms of who has won how many championships.
"We brought a driver of that class to take steps as a team and I think we all learn from having Fernando, and the same goes for Lance. So, from that point of view, it's all normal and we need to also learn from that experience and that is something that we do on the driver side and on the team side."
Asked about ongoing speculation over the Canadian's future, Krack insisted: "It's Monza, it's driver silly season and it's a bit boring at the moment. We don't have any such debate at the moment. We will be fine next year with the two drivers.
"We have seen over the last week a very hard-working driver, trying to analyse every little detail where he can improve, being in the simulator, driving a lot, so I think there's nothing that goes in that direction."