Aston Martin boss Mike Krack shifts the blame to the team while defending Lance Stroll's 2023 F1 season

Aston Martin F1 Team Principal Mike Krack has insisted that the team had to be better while defending Lance Stroll's performances in the first half of the season.

The Canadian driver is currently P9 in the standings with 47 points while his teammate Fernando Alonso is in P3 with 168 points. The British team has arguably had the second-fastest car behind Red Bull in most of the races thus far, but they haven't been able to fully optimize their weekends due to Lance Stroll's inconsistency and poor results.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Krack said:

"There is not a marked gap in performance, there is a marked gap in points. And then it's important to separate between the two. We, as a team, are analyzing 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, on 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."

The Aston Martin team cited the Dutch F1 GP as an example while defending Lance Stroll and added:

"We have to look back and look at the strategy that we have adopted in Zandvoort. I think Lance had a strong weekend up until then. But as a team, we have to take responsibility for a call that was just not decisive enough, which ruined his race at the end of the day.

"And we need to get better in such situations. Obviously, it doesn't help him, but as a team, we should have done a better job there."

Aston Martin confirms Lance Stroll as their driver for the 2024 season

Although it was never really in doubt, recently there have been a few rumors suggesting that Lance Stroll may leave the sport to pursue a career in professional tennis next season.

However, Mike Krack confirmed their driver lineup for 2024, saying:

"It's Monza, it's driver silly season and it's a bit boring at the moment. I think we don't have any such debate at the moment. We will be fine next year with the two drivers."

Hopefully, the Canadian driver improves his performances in the second half of the season and puts the reports of him holding down Aston Martin this season to rest.