Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack hopes to foster a “transparent” relationship with Fernando Alonso – even if that means uncomfortable conversations at times.
Two-time World Champion Alonso has gained a reputation throughout his career for being both direct and helpful in his feedback to his team, with some of his ideas from post-season testing in Abu Dhabi already being put into place on the new Aston Martin for 2023
But he has also not averse to bringing public relations headaches along the way – such as his public decrying of McLaren’s “GP2 engine” from Honda, and bemoaning his reliability problems with Alpine last season.
Despite this, the Aston Martin team boss is keen to take on a relationship with the Spaniard that is open and honest on both sides – as they work together for the first time this year.
“Only good things,” Krack said with a laugh to Spanish publication AS when asked what he had already heard about Alonso.
“When you are in a team for so many years, you hear stories, but I like to live my own experience and so far I have only had good relationships with the drivers based on transparency and honesty.
“Even if they are not comfortable, it is important to do so with every employee. I don’t expect any problems with Fernando as long as we give him a fast car and are transparent.”
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The Aston Martin team boss is looking to remain realistic about the team’s prospects for the moment, despite their recruitment drive and significant investment into bringing them further forward – with a new factory and wind tunnel under construction at Silverstone.
Krack is remaining pragmatic about their chances of success, even with Alonso behind the wheel, after two consecutive seventh-place finishes in the Constructors’ Championship – so is keen to keep a lid on talk of titles and race victories for now.
“It’s something we have to avoid. But even when we signed Fernando we didn’t use big phrases either,” Krack said.
“We never said we are going to win, we never said we are going to be World Champions. We are trying to progress, we want to be there in a couple of years, but we never said we are going to win by having Fernando.
“We have to give him the right tools to win. I would be surprised if people perceive us as a team that only talks about winning, because we don’t do that.”
Aston Martin will be launching the AMR23 on February 13 at their Silverstone base, with Alonso and new team-mate Lance Stroll getting set for pre-season testing in Bahrain from February 23-25.
