Aston Martin started their Australian GP campaign with a P9 and P10 in qualifying on Saturday. Even though it might not be a performance the British team would want to rejoice, team principal Mike Krack is delighted nonetheless. Krack believes his drivers can claim points from this position, but they need to overcome a serious issue.
Speaking about this, Krack told the media as per Junaid Samodien on X, “We achieved the prime objective of getting both cars into Q3, which sets us up for a strong race tomorrow, but we could have done better than P9 and P10 today.”
Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso starting from P9 and P10 are easily in the points. Therefore, Krack hopes that the drivers have a good points scoring opportunity at Albert Park. However, the risk remains from Lewis Hamilton and Alex Albon who are starting from immediate P11, and P12, respectively.
The Aston Martin boss also added that his drivers could have done better in qualifying. The Melbourne circuit is generally a windy one and Stroll faced the wrath of this during his flying lap in Q3. He also stated that Alonso’s starting position could have been better as well if the two-time world champion had not suffered from floor damage.
Alonso went wide during one of his flying laps and almost beached his car in the gravel trap. However, he managed to get his AMR24 back on track, but at the cost of damaging his floor. Stroll qualified with 1:17.072 on the timesheet, whereas Alonso took 1:17.552. They were 1.157 and 1.637 seconds slower than pole-sitter Max Verstappen.
Aston Martin hopeful despite underwhelming start to the season
Aston Martin surprised everyone when Fernando Alonso claimed five podiums in the first six races of the 2023 season. They were easily the second-fastest team after Red Bull for quite some time. However, they could not continue their momentum and by the end of the year, they fell apart.
The underwhelming performances continued coming into 2024, and they could not get past it. They ended last season in P5 in the Constructors’ Championship, and this year has been no different for them. They are still in P5 behind Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes.
Despite this, Mike Krack’s team are hopeful of making the right development and getting back to contest for podiums as soon as possible. This is very important for them as Fernando Alonso would not fancy poor results right after claiming eight podiums in 2023.
Therefore, coming back to fight with Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari is very important for Lawrence Stroll’s team if they want to retain the two-time world champion. Alonso is heavily linked with Mercedes to replace outgoing Hamilton. Therefore, Aston Martin needs to instill hopes in Alonso to keep him at Silverstone.
