“Let's be respectful and humble”: Aston Martin boss Mike Krack labels gap to Red Bull ‘still substantial’

Aston Martin's team principal, Mike Krack, feels that the team will have to develop intensely despite their performance in Bahrain. Though they had third place on the podium, the gap to the race leader was over 38 seconds, which keeps them far away from a race win.

Although Fernando Alonso had a poor start after being tagged by his teammate Lance Stroll from behind on turn 1, he admitted that even a dream start would have put him only 20 seconds behind Max Verstappen.

Krack believes that this gap is still substantial and since Aston Martin have never been in this position on the track, there is a lot to develop from. Motorsport quoted him:

"I think the gap is still substantial. We don't know how much management that Red Bull had to do and did. I think it was quite comfortable for them to just get the mandatory tyres through and cruise the race to the end. So I think we have now one good result, we have improved our car."

Krack stated that developing the car intensely is important because the teams that they are ahead of currently have been in the competition for a long time so they would be substantially better at development.

"But we are fighting here with teams that are used to drive on the front, they are very used to high-intensity development. So I think let's be respectful and humble, and see how it continues."

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Krack doubtful about Aston Martin scoring more podiums in 2023

After the flattering performance in Bahrain, drivers and fans have hyped Aston Martin for potentially more such top finishes this season. However, when asked about the possibility of such podium finishes in the future of the season, Krack sounded rather doubtful. He believes that though the car has good pace, it will require a lot of upgrades to remain fairly competitive.

Krack said (via Motorsport):

"We must not lose the ground under our feet and dream about podiums straight away. We knew that we were not bad. We knew that we had a strong race pace."

He believes a lot can happen this season which could potentially pull Aston Martin down in terms of performance. He added that this podium was only possible after Charles Leclerc retired from the race, hence, developing well is the key to gaining more podiums. He further said:

"But so many things could go wrong. And after two laps, and I was not dreaming about the podium, to be very honest with you. So you have to just see how the race unfolds and just focus on your job. And we had also the attrition of Charles, which we shouldn't forget."