02/10/2023
NEWS STORY
Aston Martin boss, Mike Krack has defended comments made by Fernando Alonso during Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix.
With the Silverstone-based outfit's form continuing to drop off, as has been the case at his previous teams, Alonso's frustration disproportionately increases.
On Sunday, unable to close the gap to Esteban Ocon as they battled for those few remaining scraps of points left on the table, the Spaniard declared that he had been "thrown to the wolves", a comment he subsequently insisted had been deliberately broadcast by FOM out of context.
He also expressed frustration that the high-downforce package his team had opted for was costing him straight-line speed.
Over the years, we have seen similar outbursts from the two-time world champion, whilst at Renault, Ferrari and McLaren.
However, Krack has defended Alonso's outburst, insisting that it serves as motivation for the team.
"I think you can listen to the twenty drivers, and everybody's really hard," said the German. "Everybody's passionate.
"If the driver would not be doing something like that, what driver is it?" he added. "So, I think, it's fine. For us, we take it as a motivation and it also opens up always a different view of things. So, absolutely fine."
Explaining the high downforce strategy, he said: "The more you bolt-on, the better pace you have for better degradation, and vice versa.
"So, it's a matter of you have to make a choice. At the end of the day, we've actually tried to go with a bit lower or to go with higher over the course of the weekend. And we finally decided to race like that.
"I think the car was a bit better than we expected in terms of performance in the race in terms of degradation. So, I think it was the right choice."
Nonetheless, compared to that impressive run of podium finishes that marked the first phase of the season, the drop-off since - ironically, Silverstone - has been massive.
"It's development," Krack insists. "You see some competitors have really made big progress, some less, and it seems quite simple. We have not done enough.
"Surely we would have liked to have more performance from our upgrades, but there is still some to come, so I am confident that we can close a little bit the gap."