Aston Martin boss Mike Krack fires a grim warning regarding their car development to Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll.
Aston Martin have had a dreadful start to the 2022 season. After three races, they’re last in the standings without a single point next to their name. However, what concerned them even more was Stroll and Vettel’s performance in Melbourne.
The duo suffered multiple crashes across the three days they spent in Albert Park. Vettel’s mistakes in particular worried the bosses more, as Krack referred to them as not being normal.
The four-time World Champion missed the first two races due to a positive Covid result, and struggled massively on his return. He didn’t get much time behind the wheel due to car issues on Friday, which was followed by crashes on both Saturday and Sunday.
Costs for repairing the cars and having them in perfect condition for Imola is going to be huge. As a result, Krack isn’t sure if they will have enough resources to provide Stroll and Vettel’s cars with enough upgrades.
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Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll’s crashes lead to a halt in the AMR22’s development
In an interview Krack highlighted how their poor Australian GP will impact car development. With budget caps introduced this season, it’s going to be difficult for team owner Lawrence Stroll to splurge cash in for several issues at one go.
Both AMR22s will need repairing before the Emilia Romagna GP next weekend. While they were expected to bring in upgrades, Krack admits that it’s likely they will have to compromise.
“We had a very difficult weekend because we had a lot of car damage,” he said. “It started already on Friday (in Melbourne). We had a small problem on the power unit, which we had to change.”
“So we didn’t get so much time. And then obviously, the on-track incidents that were visible to everybody led to a lot of work. I am quite sure you have counted the amount of incidents and the amount of wings and front suspensions that we have damaged.”
“So you can calculate quickly how many we will need to go to Imola, and actually yes, the question is correct. Will we have capacity to develop, or will we need to use our capacity for making spares? So these discussions are ongoing,” the Aston Martin boss added.
