‘We can be proud and happy’ – Krack reflects on ‘emotional’ first run for new Aston Martin at Barcelona Shakedown

Aston Martin debuted their new F1 car on the penultimate day of the Barcelona Shakedown, with Chief Trackside Officer Mike Krack declaring that they can be “proud and happy” of the milestone moment – despite arriving “a little bit late”.

Aston Martin’s AMR26 made it to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Wednesday night, with mechanics working hard – alongside new power unit partners Honda – to prepare the package for a planned maiden outing on Thursday.

At around 1700 local time, with an hour left on the Day 4 clock, Lance Stroll emerged from the pits in Adrian Newey’s first Aston Martin design, and got four exploratory laps on the board via a series of initial installation runs.

Reflecting on the day, Krack said: “Like each time when you have a new car, it’s always emotional, a very exciting moment. A lot of hard work went into it over the last days. There’s still a lot of work to come, but I think today we can take a breath and be happy that we rolled out the car.

“It was, as I said, really emotional, a nice moment for the team, and a tribute to the hard work that everybody put in. F1 is relentless, you always have to look forward, and there will be much more hard work to come, but we’re looking forward to that.”

As for how the project came together, with a new car and a new works engine deal, Krack added: “We obviously are in a bit of a unique situation. We welcome Honda, our new power unit partner, we have made our first gearbox in many, many years, and you pair that with new chassis regulations, new power unit regulations.

“So, basically, you could say it’s the worst case or the best case, but it’s a huge change for us as a team, to be a works team, a factory team, together with these regulations. Then we have Adrian on board, so it’s all very exciting, and a lot of change.

“F1 is not waiting for you, so you have to be ready. We were now a little bit late, but we made it to this test, so I think we can be proud and happy of that achievement.

“It’s still fresh [with Honda], obviously, and also when you have such a long relationship with the previous partner, you need to know the people, you need to learn the names, how you work with each other, what are your expectations, what are the responsibilities, all these kind of things.

“But it was a good start, a few smiles between ourselves and them. It’s our goal, obviously, to use this time now to integrate as much as we can, to learn how to work together. I’m very confident. They are racers, they are very open, you can challenge them. It’s really nice and I’m looking forward to continuing that relationship.”

Stroll also shared a few words about the experience from the cockpit, before handing over to two-time World Champion team mate Fernando Alonso for Friday’s running at the Spanish venue.

“It felt good,” he commented. “It was nice to be back in the car after a few weeks off. I mean, everyone did a good job of getting the car ready today. It was a long day for all the mechanics and everyone in the team, pushing flat-out to get the car ready.

“We got a few laps in at the end of the day, and it was feeling good. A lot of hours have gone into this machine, so it was nice to get behind the wheel, getting used to the new Honda power unit, and these new cars, so it’s exciting.”