Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack admits the side understood the “risks” related to introducing upgrades on a Sprint weekend at the United States Grand Prix.

The Silverstone squad unveiled a raft of new parts – including a new floor edge, diffuser, engine cover and beam wing – in its bid to recapture its early-year momentum.

However, Aston Martin encountered trouble in the sole practice hour ahead of qualifying on Friday, completing only 24 laps as both cars were hampered by brake fire trouble.

Consequently, the lack of track time to dial in its new parts resulted in Aston Martin sustaining its worst qualifying of the season to date with a double Q1 elimination.

Aston Martin elected to withdraw its cars to the pitlane for Sunday’s race, reverting Fernando Alonso to the pre-Austin AMR23 and leaving Lance Stroll with the upgrades.

Stroll was able to charge through to take 9th on the road, promoted to seventh after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified, while Alonso was also on course for points until floor damage curtailed his involvement late on.

“You have to accept, you know, that after three days of really hard work, there is a couple of smiling faces in the garage, and this is also well deserved,” Krack contended.

“But you have also to see, you know, what a missed opportunity might have been, and this is the reality.

“So the fact is that on Friday, we should have done our homework, we didn’t do it and we had the consequences all over the weekend.

“Now, there is always a rule, don’t bring the upgrades to the Sprint weekend when you take this decision to do it, nevertheless, you know what the risks are and then you cannot complain when it happens. But it’s another lesson learned.”

However, Krack has denied that Aston Martin made the wrong choice by committing to bringing updates to its car amid the complications that arise on Sprint weekends.

Asked if the team would have opted for a different strategy in hindsight, Krack explained: “Well, you know, I think you need to differentiate. You cannot just say no.

“Yeah, you need to be aware of the risk and we lost the Friday due to preparation. Yeah, we were not working well enough, we overheated the front corners and we lost the session.

“And this is all, you know when you have only one hour, when we came here, we said we have to be 100% in this one session. If we have one glitch, you know, you don’t have the data that you want to have and we had the glitch and we didn’t have the data.

“So I think it’s manageable if you have no issues, I think it’s manageable to bring upgrade into a sprint and other teams are doing it, you know, it’s doable, but the risk is higher.”

Pressed to clarify which specification was better ahead of the remaining rounds of the triple header, Krack added: “You ask me Thursday, then I know.

“No, we need to do the analysis properly. I mean, we have now a couple of, we have some good data now because in the middle of the race, we had both cars driving behind each other with I think six or seven seconds difference and also no car in between.

“So there should be enough data to, to know by tomorrow or the day after what to do [for Mexico].

Both Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack were “happy” that Lance Stroll ended his recent slump by scoring points in the United States Grand Prix.

Arriving in Austin, Stroll was on a barren run of not scoring a single point since the summer break, prompting his father, Lawrence, to defend his form in the media.

While Aston Martin’s struggles earlier in the weekend resigned Stroll to a fourth consecutive Q1 exit on Friday, Stroll charged from a pit lane start to come home ninth.

The Canadian was promoted two places to seventh post-race when both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified for excessive plank wear on their cars.

Stroll was pleased with his recovery drive, acknowledging that it was the finest day he had enjoyed in Formula 1 “in a long time”.

“It was a much better day today than we’ve had in a long time, so it was nice for us, starting from the pit lane to finishing in the points is always hard to do and we did it today so that was very positive.”

Alonso had accompanied Stroll in being withdrawn from the starting grid after Aston Martin elected to revert the Spaniard to the pre-Austin specification on his AMR23.

The two-time F1 champion was running one place ahead of Stroll when floor damage forced him to retire, but Alonso admitted his content at his team-mate’s showing.

“Happy for him, because he deserved to have better weekends,” Alonso addressed.

“Even this weekend he did a very good race today, but tough sessions yesterday and not many laps again in FP1. Finally some good news and hopefully we keep going in Mexico.”

Meanwhile, Krack credited Stroll for driving a “very strong” race, adding that he could have pipped Pierre Gasly for what transpired to be sixth place with an additional lap.

Asked how important Sunday was for Stroll’s confidence, Krack said: “Yes absolutely, I’m really happy for Lance, I’m really, really happy and I think the team as well and I think we all wish him to have a result to come from the pit lane and just behind Gasly.

“I think, I think one lap more we would have been able to pass [the Alpine driver]. But all in all, I think he drove a very strong race, all the stints, all the tyres. He was just, you know, he was really on it, clean overtakes. So yeah, I’m really happy about it.”

Pressed on what he needs to do to ensure he can deliver that level consistently, the Aston Martin chief replied: “We need to provide him with the tool to do it because you see if we do, the performance is there.”

Aston Martin have confirmed that Fernando Alonso’s retirement from the United States Grand Prix was caused by damage to a floor edge from a “brutal” track surface.

Having opted to start from the pitlane in order to make alterations to the set-up of their cars, both Aston Martin drivers climbed their way into the lower end of the top 10.

However, Alonso was running a steady ninth in the closing stages when he suddenly slowed and was advised to return to the pits.

Alonso concedes it marked a “painful” end to his race in Austin, after overcoming a challenging weekend to be in a position to lead a double points haul for the team.

“It was a super race for us, great comeback, a lot of pace in the car,” he said. “So we started from the pit lane, and we were aiming to finish eighth, so this was a very good race for us.

“Unfortunately, we had to retire the car with some damage that we picked up on the floor apparently and we had to retire.

“So it is painful because the whole weekend we were lacking pace and that was not good. And in the race today we had a lot of pace, but we still have to retire.

“So zero points, it hurts, but nothing we can do; we concentrate on Mexico.”

Asked what caused the damage, Alonso replied: “Probably kerbs.”

Expanding on the issue that curtailed Alonso’s involvement, Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack confirmed: “The track is brutal here, you know, it’s really, really very, very tough and there was one part of the floor, the floor edges on this on the right that is just broken off like half a meter in like this, this long and this wide just gone.”

The multitude of bumps notoriously present at COTA became the centre of criticism again post-race, with Max Verstappen arguing the track is currently not “F1 level”.

Krack sided with Verstappen’s complaints, highlighting: “The drivers are best placed to say that, you know, we’re sitting outside and look what they do, you know, they drive it.

“So, and they have also the comparison to other floors, to other circuits, we know that this is a hard circuit. You know, you come here, you reinforce everything, you strengthen the brake ducts, you strengthen the deflectors, you strengthen everything that you can strengthen.

“And if you look at the replacement list, there is also some teams that had to replace some parts because it’s so tough.

“Now, if it is, I think it’s also the combination in the circuit with this kind of, this generation [of F1] cars that you have to run on the lower side that makes it makes it hard. But it is a fact that it is a very hard circuit.”

Prior to Sunday, Aston Martin had endured an arduous weekend, which began with Alonso declaring it would be a testing event for the team after a double Q1 elimination.

After further struggles in Saturday’s Sprint, Aston Martin withdrew its two cars from the grid for the grand prix, returning Alonso to the pre-Austin specification AMR23.

The two-time F1 champion was enthused by the positive progress he and Stroll made in the race but concedes the Silverstone side must understand its contrasting form.

“I think we had yesterday both cars struggling a little bit, we didn’t do many laps in the weekend and today we went again into the race completely blind with new set-ups for both cars, even different package between both cars, so a little bit a test session,” Alonso emphasised.

“I think we felt much more competitive today than any other session of the weekend. Starting from the pit lane, both cars in the points I think is better than what we saw yesterday and that’s good news, but obviously, we need to understand many details.”

Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack has revealed the burning seat Fernando Alonso encountered during the Qatar Grand Prix is a repeat issue it’s “working” on.

Alonso radioed in during the opening stages of the race to inform the team that there was a burning sensation on the seat beneath him.

“The seat is burning, mate. Anything we can do at the pit stop? Throw me water or something,” Alonso queried.

However, the team were unable to act, with Alonso revealing on Sunday evening that the regulations didn’t allow for the mechanics to intervene to soothe his troubles.

Later on, Krack disclosed that Alonso had previously complained about the problem, which was worsened by the extreme conditions present at the Lusail circuit.

Asked if such a situation had materialised previously, Krack said: “Yes, it’s true. He reported on it already a couple of times.

“We were working on it. And it’s not that we have not done anything. We had it also in Singapore, which we thought was much, much better.

“But then obviously, we have another set of extreme conditions, so I think we’re not far from air conditioning if it continues like that.”

Pressed to explain why the AMR23 is encountering such an issue, Krack replied: “You have hydraulic lines, you have ECUs around you. They’re all heating up, and you try to isolate the seat from it.

“But also, you do not want to have any kind of active cooling because it’s just weight.”

Alonso believes the concern on the right-hand side of the seat was not exclusive to his car, hinting that team-mate Lance Stroll was also managing the minor hitch.

“I think for Lance and myself we struggled a little bit with temperature in the seat on the right-hand side,” Alonso elucidated.

“I got a burn in the first 15 laps, so I even asked on the radio if they could throw me some water or something at the pitstop, which apparently is not allowed. So yeah, it was quite extreme.

“We have been dealing with some issues. Today was extreme.”

Alonso battled through his concerns to eventually finish sixth, despite a brief off-track excursion at Turn 2 costing him a position to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

However, Stroll’s torrid run continued as a time penalty for a track limits infringement dropped him from ninth down to 11th.

McLaren’s second consecutive double podium, meanwhile, enabled it to close to within 11 points of Aston Martin in the battle for fourth in the Constructors’ standings.

Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack has downplayed the garage spat that engulfed Lance Stroll’s Qatar Grand Prix weekend.

Stroll was unable to escape the Q1 drop zone in qualifying on Friday evening, condemning him to an elimination from the first segment for the fourth consecutive round.

The Canadian visibly showed his anguish upon returning to the garage by firstly throwing his steering wheel away and then shoving trainer Henry Howe out of the way.

That was followed by a brief seven-word interview with the official broadcaster, which included the use of foul language.

However, Krack believes Stroll’s outburst has been blown out of proportion, claiming elite athletes should command more respect from the outside world in trying times.

“The thing is, you accumulate [frustration when] delivering below your own expectations and then frustration comes out at one point,” Krack said on Sunday.

“I said, you take a football player that is taken off the pitch, he doesn’t want to high five to the manager or he throws the jersey or he throws the water bottles, we have seen that quite a lot.

“And to be honest, I always try to delay this as much as possible to just try and get rid of the adrenaline.

“But I’m sure we run maybe 10 to 20 times less adrenaline on the pit wall than the drivers do but you put the microphone straight away in front of them or you gauge every reaction that they do.

“So I think emotions are what we want from sportsmen. If they react we judge them quickly. Is this right? Is this wrong? I think we need to be careful with that.

“We want to see it because then we’ll have something to talk about. When it goes one step too far, then people like to sit down on the sofa or in an air conditioning room and say ‘this is too much’ or ‘you cannot do that’.

“I think we need to have a bit more respect for the drivers and high elite sportsmen I would say.”

The FIA has since announced that it’s investigating Stroll for “several incidents that may have contravened FIA rules, policies and procedures during the Qatar Grand Prix”.

But, recounting the incident when asked to give his version of events on Saturday, Stroll insisted that he and his trainer were “good” again.

“He’s a bro. We go through the frustrations together and we ride together, so we’re cool,” he continued.

The Qatar GP weekend marked a continuation of Stroll’s recent struggles, with the ex-Williams racer being denied his first points since the summer break by a time penalty for exceeding track limits.

“We’re in a rut and it’s not getting better,” he conceded.

“Frustration is just, I think, in the whole group right now. I mean, we want to do better, we want to get better, but it’s just a struggle right now.”

Expanding on his troubles, Stroll admits that he hasn’t been comfortable with Aston Martin’s AMR23 since July’s Austrian Grand Prix – the last occasion he beat team-mate Fernando Alonso in a competitive session.

“I’m just struggling with the car and just getting to grips with the balance,” he explained. “I’m just not able to extract performance from it right now, which is just difficult and frustrating.”

He added: “There’s high levels of understeer, snap oversteer, a lack of grip. I feel like I can’t really lean on the car and drive it with confidence without dealing with snaps and understeer and just a balance that I really don’t particularly enjoy driving.”

Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack insists that the morale within the camp remains “surprisingly strong” despite the side’s slump.

After successive finishes of seventh upon morphing into Aston Martin, the Silverstone-based squad began the current campaign by scoring six podiums in the first eight races.

However, Aston Martin has only added one further top-three finish in the eight rounds since then, having been outdeveloped by Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren.

But Krack asserts that spirits remain on the high side inside the team, citing that every member is determined to help Aston Martin return to its early-season competitiveness.

When asked to assess the current morale at Aston Martin, Krack said: “Surprisingly strong, all of them, especially in the garage.

“You can see everybody wants to get back to the podium. Everybody liked this experience from the beginning of the year, so the morale is strong, and it is something that we need to keep up.

“But also, we need to not only talk about it – we need to bring upgrades, we need to bring our car back into a better window, and then the morale is anyway good.”

With six rounds remaining, Krack believes it’s become increasingly difficult to predict how an individual team will fare on a given circuit.

“When you look back over the last races it’s very difficult to make predictions,” he stated.

“At the beginning, we thought you look at this track or this track and thought here we are going to be a bit better and here we are going to be a bit worse.

“But the last races have told us that any team can be on the back foot, anytime.

“We’ve seen it in Singapore with the guys [Red Bull] that have won the championship. We’ve seen it in Monza, we were less competitive. We’ve seen in Zandvoort, Ferrari were less competitive.

“It’s going up and down I think for everybody, and it’s really difficult to predict what is going to happen from now until the end.”

Having lost touch with Ferrari and Mercedes in the battle for second place in the Constructors’ standings, Aston Martin is now in danger of surrendering fourth to McLaren.

The Woking-based entry trailed Aston Martin by 137 points after the Canadian Grand Prix, but the introduction of a heavily revised car in Austria has witnessed McLaren become a regular contender for podium finishes.

McLaren has since cut the deficit to only 49 points, resulting in Lando Norris declaring he is confident his team can steal fourth.

However, Krack has been coy on the battle, citing that Aston Martin must focus on ensuring it maximises its own package.

“We cannot say what will happen now until the end,” the Aston Martin chief examined.

“We have no influence over what they are doing, so we need to maximise our own package, at all times, in each session, to get the maximum out of it and try to make it a fight until the last race.”

Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack has downplayed Fernando Alonso’s comment that his AMR23 car was “undrivable” during Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix.

After Alonso placed the team on the podium rostrum for the seventh time this year in Zandvoort, Aston Martin struggled profusely with aerodynamic efficiency at Monza.

The Silverstone squad were optimistic of a more competitive showing on the high-downforce Marina Bay Circuit, but Aston Martin ended up empty-handed.

Alonso, who was the only Aston Martin driver in the race after Lance Stroll’s qualifying crash, picked up a five-second time penalty for crossing the pit-lane entry line, endured a slow second pit stop, and then headed down the escape road at Turn 14 to compound his misery en route to classifying last.

“I think we all expected a strong weekend in Singapore, it was not the case,” Alonso reflected.

“We didn’t have the pace that we were hoping for. Too many things [went wrong]: a mistake going into the pit lane, a sloppy stop, traffic all in one race. So a race to forget.”

Krack added: “We thought we had a good rhythm. I think we knew upfront that it would be difficult to go with the front guys. So I think on the Medium, everything ran pretty solid. Then after the Safety Car we fitted the hard tyres, and we struggled a bit more, we need to understand why.

“To a point where we said when the Virtual [Safety Car] came we were not sure that we could go the full distance with a decent level of performance.

“And we decided to change, and then the sequence of events, the penalty, the pitstop went wrong, and then we came out in a really bad position, and that was it at the end.”

At one stage in Sunday’s race, Alonso branded his car as “undrivable”.

“We need to look at it because the car was very difficult to drive, very little rear end from the car,” Alonso expanded.

“We killed the tyres very quickly after the pit stop, so it was a tough race. We need to look at the details, obviously we don’t have the answers yet, but we need to get better for Japan.”

Krack has played down the significance of Alonso’s radio outburst, adding that it’s Aston Martin’s role to ensure the team delivers a car that matches up to his expectations.

“As a team, we need to acknowledge if a driver is critical,” he explained when asked about Alonso’s radio message.

“Obviously there is not the performance that he’s expecting, and that he’s used to, and then I think it’s okay. We want them to give everything, and then it’s normal that also sportsmen react like that. So it’s not a problem.”

Despite Alonso admitting on Friday the likes of Ferrari were “out of reach”, the Spaniard had turned in an eye-catching long run.

Krack has urged the British marque to “really understand what happened” regarding its failure to translate that encouraging practice pace when it counted into Sunday’s race.

The Aston Martin team boss also confirmed that the two-time World Champion was nursing damage on his car, having lost a suspension fairing early in proceedings.

“We also have a little bit of damage on the car that we need to understand, how much it did,” Krack revealed. “We had an issue on one of the suspension fairings, an aero part. We saw it on the pitstop, and we saw it in the pictures.

“We had three different specs of tyres. And Singapore is also somewhere where you run close in traffic all the time, which is affecting always a lot and you don’t know how much are others saving, how much are people managing? So this is one of the most difficult races always to understand.”

Alonso’s failure to pick up any points marked Aston Martin’s first scoreless weekend of the year, witnessing the team lose ground to both Mercedes and Ferrari in the standings.

However, Krack is determined not to dwell on the result ahead of this weekend’s race.

“We have also had a couple of good ones,” he argued. “I think over a season with 23 races, and generally in sports you have ups and downs that’s normal.

“So we have to learn our lessons from this weekend, take the positives and move to Japan as quick as possible.”

Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack believes the qualifying crash that ruled Lance Stroll out of the Singapore Grand Prix showcased the driver’s “commitment”.

Stroll was striving to escape the Q1 drop zone on Saturday evening when he got onto the outside kerb at the final corner and span off into the barrier at high speed.

The session was delayed extensively to conduct barrier repairs, whilst the Canadian attributed a multitude of factors to the incident that curtailed his qualifying.

On Sunday morning, Aston Martin announced that Stroll would not participate in the race, citing the damage done to his AMR23 car and the driver’s condition as the reasons for the withdrawal of his entry.

However, Krack has commended Stroll for the crash, underlining that it demonstrates to his detractors that he does possess the dedication needed to be a Formula 1 driver.

“It’s proof that he’s full in to all the guys that are thinking he’s not, to go into this corner at that speed, you have to have some commitment, and this is another proof that he fully has it,” he said.

Stroll currently languishes five places and 123 points behind team-mate Fernando Alonso in the Drivers’ standings, having only scored three points in the past five rounds.

But amid speculation over his future, Krack confirmed ahead of the Italian Grand Prix weekend that Stroll would be remaining with the team for 2024 alongside Alonso.

Asked if Stroll’s latest blunder would be a dent to his confidence, Krack responded: “No I don’t think so. Lance is very strong. He’s much stronger than you think.

“You saw him in the TV pen yesterday [Saturday] after this. So I’m not concerned at all there will be anything. He will go in the car and he will be fast.”

The Aston Martin team boss has also denied that Stroll’s participation in this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix could be at risk.

Pressed on whether there was any risk he would be forced to miss Suzuka, Krack said: “Zero.”

Krack is convinced that electing to only run one of its cars in Sunday’s Singapore GP – Alonso eventually trailed home 15th after an eventful race – was the correct decision to ensure Stroll is fully recovered and ready to tackle the next round in Japan.

“Yeah, it is what you say, he’s generally sore,” he said regarding Stroll’s condition.

“If you have an incident like that, you stress your muscles anyway. The analogy is like if you spend a very hard day in the gym, then also you feel not great. This is where we’re at.

“I think it’s the right decision to be ready for Japan, because it’s already in a couple of days’ time.”

Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack says the side remains grateful that Alpine failed to tie down Fernando Alonso last year due to concerns regarding his age.

Alonso returned to Formula 1 after two years away in 2021 for a third stint with the Renault-owned team he had previously won his two World Championship titles with, now under the guise of Alpine.

Despite showcasing throughout the second season of his comeback that he continued to be performing at an elite level, Alpine dithered over contract negotiations.

Rumours emerged that Alpine was intent on only offering a one-year deal with an option included amid concerns about Alonso’s age rather than the guaranteed multi-year agreement the driver was searching for.

Eventually, Alonso benefitted from Sebastian Vettel’s retirement announcement to complete a surprise switch to Aston Martin, with the Spaniard revealing recently he was enthused by the commitment and the ambition shown by the Silverstone camp.

Krack alleviates no doubt about Alonso, 42, remaining at the top level, asserting that the thinking behind athletes dropping away with age is now an outdated belief.

“I think, with the right discipline and the right motivation, he will perform without problems. You look at Valentino Rossi, for example, or you look at tennis players, [like Roger] Federer, he had a very long career,” Krack told the Spanish side of Motorsport.com.

“So I think maybe we also have to change our mentality a little bit, that thinking today I think is hugely overrated.

“When you see the desire… I’ve worked with riders who weren’t even 30 years old and said ‘I’ve achieved everything’, you know, even though they haven’t really achieved much. And then you have an example like him, with a great mentality and huge determination.

“[Internally] we’re not even talking about that [his age]. It’s you guys. You know, we have two riders who are very focused and we don’t really think about that.”

After Alonso blasted Alpine for a “lack of professionalism”, Krack believes Alpine’s hesitation made it easier for Aston Martin to secure the two-time champion’s services.

“I think it was lucky for us that their previous team [Alpine] created a great story with that theme, wasn’t it? And that’s what made it easier for us,” he added.

While Alpine instantly sought to slot in then-reserve driver Oscar Piastri alongside Esteban Ocon for 2022, the Enstone squad were then stung by the revelation the Australian would be heading to McLaren.

Alpine finally agreed on a deal with Red Bull to prize Pierre Gasly away from AlphaTauri, but the Anglo-French outfit has largely endured a miserable campaign.

Having aimed to consolidate the fourth position it earned last year, Alpine has slipped back to sixth in the Constructors’ Championship with only 73 points.

Meanwhile, Aston Martin has enjoyed a competitive resurgence in the third year since its rebrand to sit fourth in the standings, a huge 144 points clear of Alpine.

Alonso has scooped seven podiums in the AMR23, the most of any driver outside the two Red Bulls, to lie third overall.

Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack says there is not a “marked gap in performance” between Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll despite the huge points deficit between the two in the standings.

Since arriving to replace the retiring Sebastian Vettel over the winter, Alonso has scored seven podium finishes in his debut campaign with Aston Martin to sit third in the Drivers’ Championship on 168 points.

However, Stroll, who missed the entirety of pre-season testing with two broken wrists, has only been able to muster a tally of 47 points from the first 13 rounds to sit 121 points and six places behind his team-mate.

While Alonso returned Aston Martin to the podium for the first time since the Canadian Grand Prix in June last Sunday at Zandvoort, Stroll trailed home a disappointing 11th.

Krack, though, has attributed the continuation of the Canadian’s struggles at the Dutch Grand Prix to the Silverstone side committing to the wrong strategy calls during the mixed conditions seen on Sunday.

“Well I think in the first place we have to look back and look at the strategy we have adopted in Zandvoort,” Krack began.

“Lance had a strong weekend up to then, but as a team we have to take responsibility for a call which was not decisive enough, which ruined his race at the end of the day, and we need to get better in such situations, it doesn’t help him, but as a team we should have done a better job.”

Krack has urged people to not pay attention to the points gap between Alonso and Stroll, asserting that it doesn’t reflect the true underlying performance of his two drivers.

“No there is not a marked gap in performance, there is a marked gap in points,” he responded when asked about the pair’s points tallies. “It is important to separate the two.

“As a team we are analysing the season from both perspectives, on both drivers, and I think we as a team need to do a much, much better job on that side of the garage, race strategy, reliability issues, it’s something we need to do much better.”

The Aston Martin chief has also ruled out the possibility that Stroll’s troubles are emanating from issues with a certain car characteristic of the team’s AMR23 charger.

“No I don’t think so, if you look at the last qualifying sessions, Q1 at Zandvoort nothing between them, I don’t think there’s any characteristics,” he expressed.

Krack remains confident that Stroll can match Alonso in the same way he stacked up reasonably well against four-time champion Vettel in their two years together.

“I think he can be just the same, like last year, we had all these discussions when Sebastian joined the team and it went pretty well, and there’s no reason why it should not be the same,” he noted.

When asked what a reasonable deficit would be, Krack replied: “I think in general between drivers there is always a certain, let’s say, gap, that I would say that is not normal but circumstantial, sometimes traffic or a glitch in one corner, but normally I think the drivers are normally within three tenths.”

Meanwhile, Krack has also ruled out that Stroll won’t be returning alongside Alonso next year, stating: “We will be fine next year with the two drivers [we have].”

Pressed on whether he sees a scenario where Stroll might question his own future, Krack said: “No, we have seen over the last few weeks a very hard-working driver, trying to analyse every little detail, being in the simulator, driving a lot, there’s nothing that goes in that direction.”