Formula 1: Alonso is "an example for all of us", greets the boss of Aston Martin

Did you expect before the start of the season to perform so well? How do you explain this difference in results compared to last year? Mike Krack: No. We are very happy, but we really did not expect it. If we take the constructors' classification, we finished seventh, so the progress is enormous. But if we look at where we were at the end of the season, it's different because we were battling with McLaren and Alpine in the middle of the pack. We went from having one of the worst cars at the start of the season, to having a car in the upper part of the mid-table at the end of the year. In F1, you never really know where you are compared to the competitors so you have to focus on yourself and try to improve race after race.

Do you think you can maintain this level of performance throughout the season? Yes. Our target was to fight for fourth place behind Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. It would have been presumptuous to say that we wanted to fight with the leading teams. Today, we are in a race for performance and improvements and we are fighting with teams that have more means, more tools and better infrastructures. But we are fighters so I am confident that we can continue our momentum. Will that be enough to finish second or third? I can't say... But we're going to do everything to stay where we are. I would be surprised if our performance drops a lot.

What do you lack to be able to compete with Red Bull? Red Bull is really way above. I think we are missing small things in all areas. There is not a single thing where you could say “If we had that, we would beat them”. We have to improve in all areas, such as aerodynamics, regularity, the operational aspect, the way we prepare, the production, how quickly we can introduce improvements, manufacture new parts and analyze data . It's a sum of lots of little things that need to be improved to take a big step forward and close the gap. And that's why it's so hard to do.

How did Fernando Alonso help the team to reach this level and did you expect him to perform so well? What helped a lot was above all the energy he brings to the team, the motivation , the confidence he brought us. “Believe in yourself and we will all get through this together,” he said. He has improved the spirit of the team a lot. He brought a lot of positivity, he is very involved. It really helped the overall dynamic of the team. I was not surprised by his level. Fernando Alonso has such motivation and such a desire to perform. He is an example for all of us in the team. If we all manage to have our level of motivation, we will be very strong in the future.

Do you think you can get a win this season? It's very hard to predict and it would be easy to say yes. What is important is to recognize that Red Bull is dominating. And you have to be ready in case Red Bull has a problem. In Monaco, we were their first pursuers, but in Barcelona it was not the case. Just on merit, it will be very difficult to win because the gap with Red Bull is very big.

Lance Stroll is often far behind Fernando Alonso. What is he missing to close the gap? He lacked luck. He has been very unlucky since the start of the season. He was injured at the very beginning of the season and he outperformed during the first 3 or 4 races compared to the state he was in. Then in Miami, we made a mistake during qualifying. Then in Monaco he ran over debris on his fast qualifying lap. At Barcelona, ​​bad luck didn't touch him and he was there, so I'm confident for the future.