Formula 1 boss of Aston Martin Mike Krack admits that the AMR24 “is not good enough” after another disappointing weekend in Zandvoort.
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll started from seventh and eighth place, but both lost to Pierre Gasly on the first lap.
While Alonso finally saved a point for 10th Place Stroll could only finish 13th.thafter losing a place due to pit stops that were too quick.
Krack admitted that the race was disappointing after a decent Saturday.
“I think we had a very strong qualifying,” he told formu1a.uno. “I think the drivers did a fantastic job in very difficult conditions and with the wind and we started more or less in the best possible position for where we are with the car.
“We had actually hoped for a little more today, but we were overtaken by a competitor at the start, and then also because of the strategy. We (Stroll) were unable to catch Hülkenberg at the end.”
“So disappointing. A lot of hard work for one point. We accept it, but we urgently need to improve the performance of the car.”
“It’s really hard for the drivers when they fall back from a hard-fought starting position. The car isn’t good enough.”
Although it was not a disaster if all cars finished a race, Krack insisted that the team needed to improve.
“Normally we prefer to look ahead rather than at the cars behind,” he said. “We thought after qualifying that maybe we had misjudged the situation a little bit or that the drivers did a really excellent job yesterday.
“That’s probably the case because we thought we had a little more pace. And today we were reminded that that wasn’t the case.”
Alonso himself suggested that 10th The place in Zandvoort actually suited the car well.
“I think probably even one point is a bit too much for the pace we have,” said the Spaniard. “But we had a good qualifying yesterday and starting position seven obviously gave us the opportunity to get this point.
“And we need to get better. There are already some races where we are struggling to keep up with some of the midfield teams. We need to understand why that is and we need to get better.”
Alonso admitted that the car had good speed, at least for one lap.
“I think the qualifications are probably our strength this year,” he said. “We were very fast in qualifying and it is difficult to overtake on this type of track.
“It’s better to send two cars into Q3, that’s usually a good sign. And yesterday we were probably a bit better than we should be. And today it’s reality.”
“And we have to get better. We need to understand the car better. We need to bring new parts for the next races and try to be like we started the year.
“We weren’t fighting with the top four teams, but we were a few tenths faster than the midfield and were in that middle position. And we want to be back there by Abu Dhabi.”
