Aston Martin Identifies Major Issue Ahead Of Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

The Bahrain Grand Prix was a nail-biter, and Aston Martin was at the centre of it all. The team, which finished seventh in last season's championship, came out like a bat out of hell, looking like the second-fastest team on the grid. And if that wasn't enough, Fernando Alonso claimed his 99th podium in F1 with a P3 finish, while Lance Stroll surprised viewers with enough performance to make you forget he'd only just broken his wrist.

But the race didn't start off without a hitch. Stroll collided with the rear of Alonso's car at the start of the race, causing the two to exchange a little paint. Alonso was lucky to escape without race-altering damage, although it didn't stop him from continually asking who had hit him (he expected George Russell, FYI).

After the race, Alonso was too overjoyed with the outcome of his performance to care that it was Stroll who almost punctured his tyre on the first corner of the race as the two embraced in their newfound success within the team.

Mike Krack, the team chief of Aston Martin, wasn't worried by their collision:

“These are things in F1 that can happen,” he admitted. “Lance was fighting very hard with George [Russell] on the outside – and I don’t like to see it either, but we let them race on lap one and lap two and [so on].

“It is something that you know can happen.”

He did however identify an aspect that the British team need to improve on going further, including at the upcoming Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The issue stems from the formation lap, led by Max Verstappen very slowly, which allowed the AMR23's tyres to cool down too much for both drivers. This meant the car exhibited sub-optimal performance where Red Bull and Ferrari were both able to take lunges at the first corner.

“That is something we really need to look at, it seems in the beginning we were struggling a little bit,” he explained.

“I don’t know if it is with warm-up or whatever it is, but we need to check.

“We haven’t really looked into it yet, we will look when [things are] calm and see how we have to handle this situation in the future.”

But let's not get too excited after just one race. There's lots of time for things to change massively on the grid. Just look at last year and Mercedes as an example. They started the season in a very bad way and ended it with a race-winning car.

Krack mirrors this sentiment, asking fans to not make up their minds about the team after just one race. Still, Aston Martin looks like they have a real chance at securing second place in the constructors' championship this season if they can put pressure on Ferrari.

The next two races in Saudi Arabia and Australia will show us how the AMR23 performs in different track environments, so we'll be able to gauge what level of performance the cars can bring to 2023.

Add us as a preferred source on Google