Aston Martin F1 team principal Mike Krack was happy to see Aston Martin fight with other front-runner teams in Suzuka, admitting that the team is no more “in no-man’s land.”
Fernando Alonso managed to finish in P6 in Japan and showed that Aston Martin can fight with the likes of McLaren and Mercedes. Krack confirmed that, at least in Suzuka, Mercedes was behind, so that is “very encouraging”.
“I think we can agree that we were not in no man’s land and that is positive,” he said.
“Because here, with the high degradation and – you can pass, we have seen you can pass in incredible places, although I wasn’t aware that you can pass through the Esses – but you see that with a large enough pace delta and tire delta, you can do it if you’re brave enough.
“But we did not seem to be in no-man’s land. We seem to be in the pack. We were ahead of the Mercedes. So that is very encouraging.”
Despite the good result, though, Krack wants to remain realistic and knows that Aston Martin will have to confirm such a positive result in other races, too.
“But again, it’s one data point. Bahrain is easier to pass than here. But we were never really under threat, let’s put it like that. Let’s see, we need to confirm over the next races.”