Aston Martin Formula 1 boss Mike Krack says that Fernando Alonso beat the team’s own pre-race simulations by finishing in eighth place in the Singapore GP.
He also stressed that the team shouldn’t get too excited by Alonso’s recent results given that the main opposition is still far ahead.
Alonso started seventh in Singapore, and while he lost places to the two Ferraris he passed Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas on strategy to claim eighth.
The result followed a sixth place for the Spaniard in Baku the previous weekend.
Alonso has frequently suggested that he’s been outperforming the car, and Krack backed up that assertion regarding Singapore.
“I think we are not P8,” said Krack. “Where we are really, we have to look at properly and analyse. But certainly we finished in a better place than we were thinking we would finish.”
Asked by formu1a.uno if Alonso continues to surprise him he said: “Yes. At the end of the day we have our numbers, and we do our pre-race estimations. Now in Baku obviously you finish higher up because there was attrition.
“But [in Singapore] again full transparency, none of our simulations were predicting that we could finish where we finished.
“Now, you could say the predictions are bad. Normally, they work out pretty well.
“We had I think good calls, not getting distracted by others, and very good management in a phase where we had a little bit of a gap, and then this was sufficient to hold on.
“Obviously, if we are very similar, it’s also difficult for others to pass you. But first of all, you have to maintain that position. And we also passed Hulkenberg by strategy.”
Krack stressed that the team can’t draw too much satisfaction from its recent results.
“The worst comment that you can make is we are best of the rest,” he said. “We should not go into full destruction mode now, as a team.
“But we have to be make sure that the positive results that we are accumulating are not hiding from the facts that we have to improve, or that we are not where we wanted to be.
“And that is critical as a whole team, because from outside you see you are scoring, scoring, scoring, scoring.
“But the four teams ahead of us are always scoring more than three or four times the points per race, and that is what where you see at the end of the day.”
Meanwhile Krack suggested a couple of difficult weekends for Lance Stroll at the Baku and Singapore street venues were related to the car.
“I think what is lacking is the confidence,” he said. “We see with Lance if you give him a car that is performing, it’s very, very good. You remember Zandvoort, a monster lap in Q2, when the car gives you confidence.
“But then if you have no confidence, and you have to drive close to the walls, it’s much more difficult. And then it’s up to us to provide the car that gives the confidence.”
Asked if last year’s heavy crash in Singapore was on Stroll’s mind Krack said: “No. We talked about that. He’s pretty cool on these things. He can put these things behind him. We had this discussion pre-Baku, how are we going to approach that.”
