Aston Martin Formula 1 boss Mike Krack believes the team is no longer in “no man’s land” due to the upgrades it brought to the last round at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Aston Martin began the previous term as the closest contender to Red Bull but regressed as the campaign progressed to end up fifth in the Constructors’ standings.
While it has maintained that same place in the order this term, the British marque has adopted an aggressive development approach since the start of this campaign.
Although Alonso reckons he outperformed the AMR24’s potential to clinch fifth at Suzuka, Krack is convinced that Aston Martin now stands in more competitive form.
“I think we can agree that we were not in no man’s land and that is positive,” Krack said post-race in Japan.
“Because here, with the high degradation and – you can pass, we have seen you can pass in incredible places, although I wasn’t aware that you can pass through the Esses.
“But you see that with a large enough pace delta and tyre delta, you can do it if you’re brave enough.
“But we did not seem to be in no-man’s land. We seem to be in the pack. We were ahead of the Mercedes. So that is very encouraging.
“But again, it’s one data point. Bahrain is easier to pass than here. But we were never really under threat, let’s put it like that. Let’s see, we need to confirm over the next races.”
Despite receiving the upgrades before his team-mate, Lance Stroll struggled all weekend as he slumped to a Q1 elimination and finished seven places behind Alonso.
Krack admitted that he was cautious about drawing conclusions from the progress the Silverstone-based squad has made following one round with its latest parts.
“We’re looking into everything at the moment to try and understand and quantify,” he said. “Again, it’s one data sample. And this is something we need to find out.
“I said it before, cars are complex, and sometimes you need a bit more time to really understand what you have changed.
“It was not easy with the lost session [FP2] that we had on Friday. So we are learning a lot about it.
“Again, I don’t have the full numbers yet in terms of we know how far off we were in the first races and it seems we have been a bit closer now.
“This we need to understand – how much is it? And where do we move from here?”
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