After the departure of Otmar Szafnauer from his role as Team Principal of the Aston Martin team in January, the Silverstone squad announced his replacement in the form of Mike Krack, a very experienced engineer in the motorsports scene, having worked in F1 for several years in the 2000s decade, before moving to work in other disciplines, such as overseeing BMW’s and Porsche’s various motorsports programmes in the 2010s, including LMP1 and Formula E.

Krack even worked with current Aston Martin star and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel during the German’s stint at BMW Sauber F1 between 2006 and 2007. He describes Vettel as a “clever” and “very nice” driver.

In a media session with selected media outlets – including MotorLAT – Krack has spoken for the first time officially as Team Principal of Aston Martin, and gave some insight on why he is coming back to Formula One after all those years, and how the pressure to perform is no harm for him:

“I think Formula One is like the Champions League - every professional football player wants to play champions league, and it’s the same for a motorsport engineer or a driver. So, from that point of view, it’s the ultimate place to be.

“There is pressure, but I think you have to turn that into positive pressure. Yes, we want to succeed, we have to succeed – we spend so much time, and so much budget, it’s not for being second or for participating.

“Obviously you cannot switch and be performing and winning from the first day. Others have tried that for very long. At the end of the day, it’s a huge challenge, but it’s also a huge opportunity that we have now.

“With the Aston Martin brand, I think we have the ingredients that you need to be successful."

The #AMR22 looking right at home. 💚 pic.twitter.com/VgdUwd2PuW

— Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) March 2, 2022

When asked by MotorLAT, Krack gave his opinion on the direction the sport is heading nowadays, and how it is “not comparable” to when he left the sport in 2010, and how he thinks Liberty Media has done a “fantastic job” since taking over the sport in 2017:

“I think it is very positive what happened with Liberty (Media). If you see how the fanbase and how the audience over the last (few) years, it’s just incredible – and I think this is largely the merit of Liberty.

“To compare it to F1 when I left it, to be honest, it is not comparable, because it has evolved so much. (Over) 10 years (have passed),” he said. “I mean, one year in F1 is an eternity.  When you look back old grand prix’s from 2009/2010, it’s not only the cars that evolved, it’s the whole system.

“Liberty (Media) has already delivered great achievements, and I think there will come more. It is more oriented to the show, but I think this is what the spectator wants, and from that point of view, I think they do a fantastic job to be honest.”

Krack is relying on his ability to get personnel to work efficiently together to keep the spirit of a nimble, small team that was Force India and Racing Point back in the day, whilst still taking all the benefits from its expansion into a major force to be reckoned with in the sport:

“Having been in engineering for very, very long, (in) F1 but also out of F1, (also in) Formula E and hypercars, it gives you a very good overview about KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) that are needed for different categories. I think it is important, if you are in a technical/management role, that you understand these KPI’s and what is important to be successful on the technical side – because Formula One is very technical, and very advanced in terms of development.

“I think my strength is not on the engineering. I manage to bring people together, give them trust, to enable them – I think I can manage to form teams that work well together. That is not a five minutes job, to have the individuals. You can bring very bright individuals and they never work well together, whereas sometimes it’s more important to have teamwork than the ultimate individuals.

“It’s this fine balance between having very good people, but also having them together. Team is everything in F1, we have a large head count, we all have to pull onto the same side of the rope, with all the people, not only the race team, but everybody who is involved – the full head count at the factory and everything.

“It’s a matter of bringing them together, having the right spirit and having the right attitude.

“I think that in the past, this helped me in my career, and the engineering background is something which enables you to really understand what’s happening, and that you focus on the right areas.”

Riding those kerbs. 👌 pic.twitter.com/gGbZz5CTYD

— Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) March 3, 2022