Aston Martin Chief Trackside Officer Mike Krack has quashed any notion that the team has a reason to celebrate its first Formula 1 Grand Prix finish of the 2026 season.
The Silverstone-based squad has suffered a nightmarish start to 2026 with a pre-season fraught with issues that has extended into the first three race weekends.
Continuing problems with its Honda power unit and conjoining anomalies have led to both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll being unable to complete a full distance.
But in Suzuka, Alonso – who did have reason to celebrate with the birth of his first child – completed the full 53-lap race, despite no doubt struggling with the infamous vibrations that have caused numbness to both himself and Stroll.
There may have been some pride felt for Honda, as its PU reached its first full distance at its home Grand Prix, but for Krack, the achievement was acknowledged, given the progress it marks, but stated the team felt little more than that.
“The mood in the team is not celebration, that is clear,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“But when you look back in Melbourne, we discussed doing six laps. In Shanghai we managed to do the sessions, but we had in-between sessions a lot of work to be able to do all the sessions. This was not the case here.
“So the cars could be prepared normally between the sessions, and our objective, it is a modest objective, clearly, was to finish a race with both cars. We managed with one.
“So it’s one small step on the list with many, many, many small steps to be done.”
Krack: ‘Persistence’ the key to Aston Martin making the chequered flag in Suzuka
It was not a total shutdown of the idea of feeling pleased from Krack, as he stated that everyone on the Aston and Honda sides of the operation has “persisted” in their work to achieve Alonso’s race-finish, recognised that, these days, finishing races “should be the norm.”
“As a team you cannot destroy yourself,” he said.
“We are in a difficult situation, and you need to take the positives from the last three months. We went to Barcelona at the end of January, and since then, we have not done many laps.
“We have now managed to finish races, which in F1 it should be the norm. It should not be something that you have to celebrate.
“But we have to acknowledge that that is the situation we are in, and then we have to accept it and work our ourselves out of it.
“I think credit to everyone trackside, Sakura and also in Silverstone, how we persisted in getting these initial steps done.”
Aston can certainly feel a tinge of happiness in finishing a race, in what is the engine’s third race, given that it arrived in Barcelona with ‘shakedown week’ almost over.
It is a stepping stone for the team to, no pun intended, crack on with the hard work over the month-long break before the Miami Grand Prix on May 3.
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