"It doesn't necessarily mean we'll turn up in Bahrain and fight for the win” - Aston Martin boss follows a cautious approach for 2024 F1 expectations

Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack feels the team might not necessarily start its 2024 F1 season with a bang, similar to how it performed at the start of 2023.

The British team was right up there with the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari at the start of 2023, but quickly fell down the grid as the season progressed and other teams started developing their cars. However, Aston Martin managed to learn quite a lot about its car and how to improve it in the future.

Krack claimed that the team understood several aspects of the AMR23 if not everything. Although Aston Martin knows which direction to head to improve its car, he was quick to add that the improvements do not guarantee race wins right from the start in 2024.

“We did understand the car by the end of the season. But it would be wrong to say we understood absolutely everything about the AMR23. We understood a great deal. We know what we want to do for 2024 and the direction we need to go in with next year’s car. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to turn up at the season opener in Bahrain next year and be fighting for the race win,” he told Formu1a.uno.

Aston Martin ended the 2023 season in fifth place with 280 points. At the beginning of the year, it had the second-fastest car on the grid.

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Fernando Alonso on how Aston Martin should progress forward in 2024

Fernando Alonso was brilliant with Aston Martin right after joining the team in 2023. The Spaniard bagged several podiums and is still determined to work with Aston Martin in the future.

When Sportskeeda asked about how important it is to have a great car for the 2024 F1 season, Alonso replied:

“Yeah its going to be important because obviously, this is the first step of hopefully a good progress in the team. We always said this was year one of Aston Martin being competitive, a lot of changes in the team, the new factory, all these things that we’ve been saying for a long time."

"If next year we take a step backwards that will be bad. We need to keep moving forward, we finished fifth in the constructors we need to improve that for next year, third fourth second, that will be welcome. And in my case, yeah after eight podiums this year, hopefully I can do something similar next year,” he added.

Alonso finished fourth in the drivers' championship in 2023 with 206 points.