Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack has ruled out making any excuses as to why the team are struggling as of late, following a run of three races without a rostrum.
The Silverstone-based outfit not being represented on the podium in the past few races has been an odd sight to behold, given that Fernando Alonso finished in the top three at six of the opening eight races of the season.
They’ve struggled to even break into the top five over recent rounds, with progress having been made by Mercedes and, crucially, McLaren.
Krack is refusing to blame the budget cap or a recent change in the construction of Pirelli’s tyres, with him viewing that as an “easy excuse” for the side’s struggles.
Want to work in Formula 1? Browse the latest F1 job vacancies
“That would be an easy excuse,” he said, as reported by PlanetF1.com.
“We see that there is a deep difference with these tyres but they were brought on safety and so from their point of view, everybody has to run them.
“It’s the same for everybody so we should not use this as an excuse for competitiveness, because it’s the same tyres that we have to use going forward.”
“To use the cost cap as an excuse not to progress,” Krack added. “I think at this stage of the season is a little bit strange. This is not the case for us.
“We will try to improve the car further, understand these limitations, work on them and try to bring parts and upgrades for the next races that fix them.”
Weirdly, Aston Martin’s performances started to disappoint after they introduced a large upgrades package, suggesting that the installation of the developments was a mistake.
Krack also wonders whether the upgrades package has led to their decreased performance.
“It’s very complex,” Krack said.
“You change one thing but you never change one thing and everything else is fine. You always have side effects when you do changes and you need to weigh what you use.
“For example, a part makes more downforce but has a different character or vice versa and we think that in one or two situations we have done not the right choice.”
READ: Max Verstappen jokes about Oscar Piastri
Thankfully, though, Krack is “very confident” that the team have solved what caused their recent pace woes.
“We are very confident,” the Aston Martin boss added.
“It took us now a couple of weeks to identify what the issues are and also to confirm them. But we are quite confident that what we can do over the next races will give us the improvements we need.”