Aston Martin looks for ‘a step forward’ after struggle in Monza

The Italian Grand Prix was a worrying step down for Aston Martin after their recent good form.

At the Dutch Grand Prix, a week earlier, Aston Martin took their seventh podium of the season when Fernando Alonso finished second. But at Monza, Alonso only qualified tenth, with his teammate Lance Stroll suffering an even worse performance to qualify dead last.

Stroll came up to finish 16th in the race, and Alonso recovered one spot to finish ninth and take home two points for the team. But with Ferrari finishing third and fourth in their home race, Aston Martin dropped to fourth in the Constructor’s standings.

After the Italian Grand Prix, Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack opened up about the struggles the team faced throughout the weekend.

“The term damage limitation I think we stressed it a bit too much already,” Krack told Motorsport.com.

“Yes, two points. But we lost a position to Ferrari. And the most important thing is that we take the lessons learned for Las Vegas, and also for next year.

“So I think it’s really important. We had similar issues last year when we came here, and we need to do a step forward in these kinds of circuits.”

Future upgrades?

In regards to moving forward and looking to the future, Krack commented: “We have a list of things still coming from now to the end of the season. Vegas I think is the second to last race, and we hope that some of these updates are helping to do that.”

“I think honestly, both drivers did a fantastic job, because the car was really difficult to drive,” he said.

“Obviously, we did such a strategy, you take all the tyre degradation with you when you do a one-stop, but it was it was the thing to do. And it was difficult, and we need to give them better tools. Like this it’s difficult to race for good points.”

Looking ahead to Singapore, Krack is confident that it won’t be quite so much of a challenge for the British team.

“The character is not changing much,” he said. “I mean, it’s changing a little bit. You take out four corners, obviously, the circuit becomes quicker. But all-in-all, I think it still stays the same character, or similar character, and it should be more suitable for us.

“I think we should be better than we have been at Monza. At the end of the day we need to still close the gap on the steps that we have made so far. And then see if this is helping for Singapore. But we need to get better on tracks like Monza as well.”

Image Credit: ANP – Getty Images