Mike Krack (Aston Martin): “Ferrari is fast, but always has problems”

Too many problems
“We must not forget that they have always been fast, since the first race. But they have always had problems.” With these words, concise but extremely effective, Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack has perfectly summarized the first five rounds of this 2023 Formula 1 World Championship for Scuderia Ferrari. Leaving aside Red Bull, clearly engaged in a championship of its own only between its drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, the races run so far this season have shown how the level of performance of Aston Martin, Mercedes, and Ferrari is rather similar.

Unfavorable incidents
The difference from time to time has been made by the different types of tracks encountered in these first five rounds and, above all, the many unfavorable incidents that have occurred to the two SF-23 cars of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Listing them was the job of the number one of the British team himself, who admitted that Ferrari’s misfortunes – between errors, problems, and simple misfortunes – have often coincided with the main moments of ‘glory’ for Aston Martin, which proved to be skillful with Fernando Alonso in capitalizing on the weaknesses of the Maranello team.

“Charles [Leclerc] was in third position in Bahrain when he retired” – Mike Krack recalled, speaking to the German website Motorsport-Total.com and referring to what happened in the first Grand Prix of the season – “and we benefited from it. In Jeddah, there was a grid penalty. In Australia, there was the incident at Turn 1.” – he pointed out.

In all these situations, it was Fernando Alonso who climbed onto the podium, as the third-place finisher. In Baku, the music had changed, with Charles Leclerc breaking the Spaniard’s sequence of third places. But in Miami, the Spanish driver of Alfa Romeo was back in the role of “best of the rest” behind the untouchable Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

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Krack always on the alert
At the Miami International Autodrome in Florida, USA, the Monegasque driver made a mistake in qualifying, ruining two laps that could have earned him the front row and perhaps even the pole position. In the race, there was never any doubt, with the Ferrari cars of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc himself never having a chance to worry the two-time champion’s AMR23.

Mike Krack, however, has hedged his bets and continues to consider Scuderia Ferrari a credible rival in the race for second place in the 2023 Formula 1 Constructors championship: “They have never been slow,” the Luxembourgish manager pointed out at the end of his analysis.