Mike Krack, Aston Martin’s new F1 team principal, has the advice to excel in this role if protected from the disruptions that can occur within larger organisations.
Ex-BMW Motorsport boss Krack has replaced Otmar Szafnauer in the Aston Martin team, where he will report to Martin Whitmarsh, CEO of the Aston Martin group.
Krack has built a reputation at BMW as a no-nonsense, dedicated and popular leader who has had hands-on experience managing the factory’s Formula E and GT racing programs.
His former colleague Roger Griffiths, who runs the Andretti Formula E team, which was a works BMW entrant until the manufacturer’s exit at the end of last season, rates Krack “incredibly highly” and considers him a “very smart” appointment Aston-Martin.
Krack’s predecessor, Szafnauer, was tasked with overseeing the day-to-day operations of the team while managing the early phase of its rapid expansion under team chairman Lawrence Stroll, to whom Szafnauer reported directly.
But Whitmarsh arrived last summer as CEO of the new umbrella group Aston Martin Performance Technologies, under which the F1 team falls, and Griffiths reckons it could be crucial in getting the best out of Aston Martin’s new team boss.
“You would hope that someone like Martin Whitmarsh could be in a role where he might set the overall goal of the team or whatever, and then it’s Mike’s job to execute that in any way he sees fit,” he said Griffiths to The Race.
“And he should be there to eliminate the noise so Mike doesn’t have to deal with it and allow Mike to go ahead and deliver what he’s been asked to do.
“I think it’s very similar to how McLaren works.
“So I’m sure Aston Martin has been looking up and down the structure of the different teams in the pit lane because they’re slowly starting to move away from that traditional ‘team boss and then everyone reports to that person’.
“The role has just gotten so big and when you have an organization of between 400 and 800 people it’s very difficult for one person to just have total control of everything and also have to report to a shareholder group and all the rest of that.
“If you can have someone who can act a little bit like an umbrella for all the stuff that’s raining down from above, and in that case allow Mike to continue, I think he’s going to do an extremely good job.”
In the two years that Szafnauer ran the Silverstone-based team, first as Racing Point and then as Aston Martin, he had to be the face of Stroll’s political positions – like refuting rule-breaking during the ‘pink Mercedes’ controversy in the Year 2020 and Aston Martin’s complaint about the FIA’s ground rule changes in 2021.
Returning to F1 after more than a decade, Krack previously worked in increasingly important technical roles at Sauber rather than in managerial positions, so he is not as entrenched in the paddock as his predecessor.
As a result, it’s possible Whitmarsh will be tasked with taking on more of those political struggles for Aston Martin, but Griffiths said that despite the fact that he’s “never been a political guy” in his own career, Krack shouldn’t be underestimated.
“He’s not a political animal when it comes to his own good, but he’s certainly not naïve,” Griffiths said.
“Although he has not been in the F1 pit lane for a number of years, he has moved in those circles on numerous occasions.
“He obviously navigated his way through BMW and the recent changes at BMW when Jens Marquardt left and the new guy [Markus Flasch] came in and then went out again and took the reins from him – so I think he’s aware of that.”
“And of course he was involved in all talks with the sanctioning authorities at DTM, FIA and IMSA.
“So he knows all the players, he just hasn’t been in the F1 pit lane for a long time. That will probably be the biggest challenge for him.
“But knowing Mike like I know him, I have no doubt that people in the paddock will start to develop a lot of respect for him pretty quickly.”
When BMW decided to leave FE, Krack was also a big supporter of a powertrain extension deal for his partner team Andretti until 2022 to ensure they were not let down.
It is said to have become a personal priority of his and he even made sure BMW engineers would be on hand for track support.
While Krack’s technical background, his experience in Formula 1 and his career at BMW should automatically inspire respect from all areas of the team, Griffiths expects the way he interacts with people to support this process and make employees feel to participate in its leadership.
“He’s obviously a very smart engineer, but he’s very hands-on and likes to listen to all sides of the story, really base it on facts and then make up your own mind about where things are,” Griffiths said.
“He’s one of those unsung guys who goes about his business quietly, doesn’t make a lot of noise, doesn’t make big movements or anything, just gets the job done.
“When he said, ‘Let me check that, I’ll see what I can do,’ you never had any doubt that when he hung up, he wasn’t going to do what he said.
“And nine times out of ten he came through for us and when he couldn’t do anything he had very good reasons why it just wasn’t possible to achieve what we were trying to achieve.
“Mike isn’t the type of guy who is looking for the camera or wants to be the next superstar because he’s more than happy working with everyone in the background.
“He’s always had a very close relationship not only with the engineering team but also with all the mechanics and drivers and everyone else involved.
“I think he will be the person who ties everything together at Aston but will not be the one looking for the credit.
“It’s a very smart move on their part.”
