Aston Martin isn’t giving up the fight for fourth in the Constructors’ with McLaren. McLaren are confident that they can take fourth and for good reason. The gap has shrunk by a massive 91 points over the last three races, leaving Aston Martin just 11 points ahead in what was once a sizeable lead.
Quite simply, Aston Martin have been out developed by their rivals and as a result have only out-scored McLaren once in the last eight races.
When asked by the media if Aston Martin’s fate was sealed this season, team principal, Mike Krack, replied that basically it isn’t over until it’s over.
“No, I think you always have your destiny in your own hands,” Krack said.
“You have to try and improve the car, which we still try to do and then try to fight this as hard as we can.”
Krack did admit that they don’t have the pace advantage “at the moment” and that “it will be tough” to change that but stressed that they “need to try.”
Aston Martin are bringing upgrades to the upcoming U.S. Grand Prix and have taken some encouragement from their solid performance in Qatar where Alonso finished P6.
“We were a little bit better than we were recently, but not enough to jump a position,” Krack added. “We managed to keep the Ferrari behind but then when the Ferrari was in front, we were also not able to pass it.
“I think it was not really a surprise because we need to also not forget that in qualifying we had a good ranking, but we had also some deleted lap times [due to track limits infringements]. So you think you are high up on the grid, but it is not 100 percent reflecting your performance.”
One of the problems faced by Aston Martin is the car’s weird quirk that heats up the driver’s seat. Qatar’s extreme heat only exacerbated this problem.
“Fernando reported this already a couple of times,” said Krack. “It’s not that we have not done anything because we had also a step 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 it.
“You have hydraulic lines, you have ECUs around you, they are all heating up. “They try to isolate this heat from it but also you do not want to have any kind of active cooling because it’s just weight.”
