Aston Martin CTO Mike Krack discussed one of the worst events in the 2026 season at last weekend’s F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP for the team. In a year that is already quite difficult for the Silverstone outfit, both cars qualified on the last row, and failed to finish the race.
Krack feels sorry for fans in green
Krack’s first reaction after the race was illustrative for the season.
“Disappointing weekend. Disappointing weeks. Difficult weeks,” he summarised his feelings in a print media session.
“But I think it’s… We expected a difficult weekend. But then having poor performance and then not finishing or having two DNF’s does not make it easy.”
Despite the teams recent struggles, there were still lots of fans in British racing green in the audience with Fernando Alonso starting yet another home race.
The former Team Principal for AM felt sorry for them, as they could give them little to cheer about.
“In the first place, I feel sorry for all the fans in green shirts in the grandstands, in the paddock. There were many. When we drove in and out, it was so nice to see all these people with the green shirts.
“And we could not give them anything to cheer about, which is a shame because we started from the pit lane and then we could not finish the race in a decent result.
“So in the first place, I’m really sorry for all the fans that have bought expensive tickets to see their heroes and we could not give them the power to perform.”
Krack: Swapped battery a tactical driven decision for 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP, not a reliability driven one
With Fernando Alonso changing his battery prior to the race—thus starting him from pit lane—it would be logical to assume his lap 37 retirement was due to related issues.
Krack could however not deny nor confirm this, as they were still busy investigating at the time. He did reveal, however, that the swap was tactical.
“I mean, on the detail, I cannot really tell you because the car has just arrived and we are now… The standard process is you have the protective equipment, you have to take everything out with all the precautions, so I cannot really give you a detail.
“The change that we did for the race was a strategic change, basically to take one more in the pool, so there was not really anything that was making this a requirement and anything more we really have to analyse.”
Stroll’s gearbox issue not obvious in initial investigation
Alonso’s team mate Lance Stroll retired on lap 5.
The Canadian driver entered the pits with little warning as he was already in the final turn when he mentioned a gearbox issue.
“Yeah, it’s a bit similar,” Krack explained. “We need to look into it. He reported a gearbox problem and boxed basically from the last corner, so we had no real time to react.
“So again, we have to take everything apart and we didn’t see anything in the first place, but you also have to sometimes look a bit deeper. So he reported that problem and it’s another one we have to really look into.”
