How Aston Martin's "filter" defied Berger criticism to thrive in F1 leadership

A year and a half ago, when Aston Martin's appointment of a new team principal left many in Formula 1 wondering "Mike who?", Gerhard Berger came to the rescue. The 10-time grand prix winner, who in his role as DTM boss had seen Mike Krack lead the BMW project, felt it necessary to offer his own insight.

"I just don't see the way forward for Aston Martin with him," said the Austrian during an impromptu media briefing organised by the DTM communications team during Berger's visit to the F1 test in Bahrain, just days after Krack took up his new job. "In all the years I've been there now, [BMW has] never been really consistently competitive.

"When you watch it and you see this over a longer period, you question the people behind it, and he was leading it, the project. And this is DTM! DTM is great. But the F1 is a different league. Here, you need to be the best of the best in the world. I don't see this."

And, although Krack was nowhere near responsible for the Aston Martin 2022 car project, it all added up somehow. The green team started the year with three points-less grand prix finishes and dropped to last place in the constructors' championship. It was as if Berger really knew what he was talking about.

As we sit down to talk with Krack at the Aston Martin hospitality suite a year and a half later, things are a little different. His team is going through a rather challenging period, but its main concern now is that it is not getting as many podium finishes as it did at the start of the season.

Krack is calm and relaxed, yet focused. He listens attentively to the questions, occasionally nodding to indicate that the answer has already been drafted and is ready to be provided. It's only the question about when he last spoke to Berger that catches him somewhat off guard.

"Actually... Maybe that was three or four years ago, something like that?" he laughs. "No, wait, yes, two years ago. I think it was maybe a month before I left BMW, we had one more meeting about DTM in general, and GT in general. But that was a Teams call, [it] was not a personal [meeting]. I never had a personal discussion with Gerhard."

Berger was typically forthright in his verdict on Krack ahead of the 2022 campaign, but his comments haven't dated well

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

He did, however, read Berger's interview and, although he insists it didn't really bother him, it certainly didn't help the process of getting to know the team - as many of those at the now-former Aston Martin factory had yet to form their own impressions of the new boss when Berger decided to make headlines.

PLUS: The background considerations behind Berger's Aston boss criticism

"Well, it did not make the task more complicated," Krack smiles. "For me, it was motivation. And what was really nice, [is that] I had from my previous background or surroundings, across several manufacturers, competitors from the past - they sent me encouraging texts, emails, you know, and that is why I was not really bothered, to be honest. Everybody can have an opinion. And if at that time he felt it was important to say that, it’s OK.

"For me, what was surprising, I thought it was not important enough to be in the media. We had some disagreements over certain things, but we never really worked close together. So, he doesn't know how I work. And I do not know how he works. So I was a bit surprised that he even talked about that."

Aston is one of the most ambitious projects in the championship, so as well as getting to know new faces and trying to improve on-track results, Krack had to ensure that the process of moving to a new base goes as smoothly as possible - while still getting to grips with F1

But that wasn't all. Later, Krack missed the dinner with Stefano Domenicali organised for the team principals in Imola due to a "miscommunication", prompting jokes on social media that only those principals whose teams managed to score points were invited. And then it was time to deal with all the 'green Red Bull' accusations...

It's fair to say that F1 was at its most challenging when it welcomed back one of the former BMW Sauber engineers who went on to make a career in other categories before reappearing in the paddock in a new role a decade and a half later.

He has had a lot on his plate, apart from suddenly having to deal with the media side of Formula 1. The team he's in charge of is one of the most ambitious projects in the championship, so as well as getting to know new faces and trying to improve on-track results, he's had to ensure that the process of moving to a new base goes as smoothly as possible - while still getting to grips with F1 and a new set of responsibilities.

"When you start, you look first at the grounds that you are more familiar with," he says, explaining his approach. "So coming from engineering, first of all you see, OK, how is the engineering side, because this is the one that you know best. But you have to be careful not to step on toes because there is someone in charge.

Krack arrived during a hectic period for the Aston Martin project in 2022 with a huge amount of learning to do

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

"Then you start to look into communications, the commercial side, legal and finance, because also the organisation is developing. And in the beginning, for example, finance was not in my responsibility, it came after. And so, step by step, the more familiar you get with one area, you look into the next one. And this is how it went, step by step.

"There is still a lot to learn. There are several areas where I think I'm quite comfortable, and there are other areas where I need to learn a lot."

Long gone are the days when F1 teams were run almost entirely by the likes of Ron Dennis, Frank Williams, or Eddie Jordan. They are now large organisations with staff numbers in the thousands, and structure is as important as strong individuals at the top.

Krack certainly doesn't come across as a role model for one of the major members of F1's "piranha club". But he fits in perfectly with the image of the new breed of manager such as Andrea Stella or James Vowles. He is happy to admit that he has been lucky to join the team as it is on the up - there is a lot of experienced staff left over from the Racing Point days and many key hires, such as the team's technical director Dan Fallows, were made before his arrival. His role is to simply run the team on a day-to-day basis and help develop the structure as the team continues to grow.

It is not always possible to judge the effectiveness of such a large organisation from the outside, with on-track results being the most obvious indicator. But one of the signs of how well-organised Aston Martin is today can be seen in the way the team has twice this year successfully appealed against the results of the races in Saudi Arabia and Austria.

Remember how Fernando Alonso got his podium back in Jeddah? Shortly after the race, the FIA received video evidence from the team's sporting director, Andy Stevenson, showing that seven(!) other incidents similar to the one for which Aston Martin was penalised had gone unpunished.  That's a bit different from providing a recording of Karun Chandhok's analysis from Sky Sports.

"You need to be prepared for any kind of incidents that are happening," explains Krack, "to be able to react fast, because you have only half an hour for protest, and then you have only a short time to bring evidence. If you, in such a situation, start to think, 'Oh, when did we have this last time?', then it's too late.

"The thing is, yes, you have to have people like Andy. It shows again, how important experience is because, first of all, he remembers a lot of incidents. And then also he remembers the penalties that came with various incidents. If you have someone like that, you know he can guide [his colleagues]: have a look at Alpine or Ferrari there, you know, he remembers a lot of them. We have the system at home, which is very structured. But the impulse comes from Andy.

Aston has been a regular podium finisher this season, with Alonso's Saudi rostrum secured thanks to slick operation from its sporting director

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

"To be 100% honest, it's a pleasure to work with all these people because they are... It’s not only Andy, it's Tom [McCullough], it's Dan [Fallows], it's basically the whole team, you know, it's a fantastic team spirit. It's not about egos. All of them have the team in the centre, and they all know that they have to bring their part. Andy on the sporting [side], Tom on the performance and technical, Tony [Browne] on the finance.

"It's a well-integrated team. And I'm just managing it. And I am fortunate that the people are the way they are team players, knowing what it is about. And I'm thinking the same, so it is really, really easy to manage."

Indeed, Krack's main task is simply to maximise the resources that Lawrence Stroll has made available to the team - and for what it's worth, it's Stroll who is both the de facto leader of this project and its main driving force. It's the Canadian's commitment and confidence to invest that has allowed Aston Martin to embark on a successful recruitment campaign, snatching specialists away from those with whom the team plans to fight for victories in the future. And it's Krack's responsibility to make the most out of it.

"There was not this long job of convincing [Alonso] that we are heading in the right direction and we are investing. We have a new campus, wind tunnel, everybody knows now. It is much, much easier to recruit people" Mike Krack

"I think it was [the case] even with Fernando," says Krack of the extent to which Stroll's approach now allows Aston Martin to attract the most talented individuals. "If you see just the time that it took, you know, to have him with us. You see that there was not this long job of convincing that we are heading in the right direction and we are investing. We have a new campus, wind tunnel, everybody knows now.

"And it is much, much easier to recruit people, because you don't have to convince them. Now, Formula 1 also has this, everybody's locked into contracts, so you never have anyone immediately or quickly, but I think in general, the way Lawrence has put it out, we became much more attractive. Whereas if we would be Racing Point, I think, it is much more difficult to attract people."

Ultimately, it's about what Krack can now offer potential employees - not just in terms of ambition, but the whole package, including a near-perfect working environment. And Stroll's desire to not only create a cutting-edge technology factory in Silverstone, but to make it an ideal place for his employees to work, plays a major role. After all, in F1's cost-cap era, it's not just about writing the biggest pay cheque.

"Life has changed," says Krack. "Young people have a completely different focus than I had when I was young. When I started, it was like, I would have worked for free in Formula 1, just to work in Formula 1. And I would have worked 24/7, just because I wanted to do it.

Krack says Aston is now a more attractive team for new hires to join

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

"Now, people are much more focused also on their life, on their out-of-work life. And every business has to adjust to that. You see it not only in Formula 1, you see it in every business - that the businesses need to adjust more and more to the workforce than it was in the last 50 years. The last 50 years, the employers made the rules, and the employees had to follow the rules. And now it's just starting to change, because you want to have good people and good people set their own requirements.

"And I think the emphasis on a nice campus, on a nice restaurant, catering - he [Stroll] does not want to say 'canteen', it has to be 'restaurant', - facilities, with gym, with walking trails and stuff like that, it's really nice. For people like our generation, we don't need that, really. We need a wind tunnel, we need money, and we go testing. But, times have changed, and I think all of us need to adjust to that. And I think Lawrence, in the first place, he has understood that."

At the same time, by investing so assertively in the team, Stroll comes across as someone who also demands results.

"Well, I agree with you that it's an intimidating appearance," he says, when asked if one of his tasks is to protect the staff from being intimidated by the big boss figure. "But it's not an intimidating person. He is a very fair person, very generous person, but also very ambitious person, and emotional, and passionate.

"So I do not have to turn something negative into a positive, I just have to take something positive and transmit this positive. Maybe filter a bit, because if someone is as passionate, the highs are higher, and the lows are lower, yeah? So I'm kind of a filter in between. But it is not that I have to turn from negative to positive. It's just the more like, filter out the peaks of the positive and filter out the peaks of the negative."

It seems to be working well so far. Last year, under Krack's watch, Aston Martin made the biggest strides in the championship, moving from last place in the teams' standings to almost as high as sixth - ending up level on points with Alfa Romeo. And this year, despite recent struggles, it's still the biggest surprise of the season.

So when Krack describes his experience of the last year and a half in F1 as "fantastic", it's easy to believe him.

"You know, the whole thing came out of the blue, so to say," he says. "I was heading up the BMW Motorsport operations, and I was not expecting [to end up in] Formula 1. And I was also not looking for it, because also, it was 15 years since I had stopped. And I did not really have a big ambition to go there.

Working for the ambitious Lawrence Stroll, Krack says his role is to act as a filter

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz / Motorsport Images

"The interesting bit is when the call came, it was like a switch, like an ignition. The passion for Formula 1 was [still there], I watched races before, but as a fan. I never had the desire to apply for a job in Formula 1. Because I was actually quite OK with what I had, and Formula 1 was actually a closed book for me. But I realised, when the call came, it was not. It was just one chapter."

It was a desire to use the experience he had gained in other series that lured Krack back to F1 - and in the end, his current job is not too dissimilar to the one he had at BMW, where he oversaw a wide range of motorsport projects, with perhaps the biggest difference being a sudden move into the spotlight.

"Well, what I was most surprised with is how much every little detail is exposed," says Krack of F1. "When you do lower categories, like sportscars, or GT and all that, it is mainly the big manufacturers [teams], you can steer the media quite a lot, and you only give what is really important. And if the driver has an infection, or the driver has a headache, or if a driver has been [posting something] on Instagram, nobody really is interested.

"You need to be [understanding] that you still have a job to do, and you don’t become a clown, or an actor, which we also have in the paddock. So, that's the fine balance. But I'm happy with the way it is" Mike Krack

"Here, everything is just massively exposed, every little detail. And also, everything you say, you have to be super careful, because it can fire back. And a lot of stuff is recycled over many, many weeks, and can be put out of context months later.

"But I think, when you are out of F1 for a couple of years, you recognise things [that are] not so important. There are more important things in life than if someone is commenting on the picture with Stefano or [what] Gerhard Berger [says]. There is something bigger.

"So, to be honest, I don't take it that seriously, the whole show. And, at the end of the day, I think you need to be [understanding] that you still have a job to do, and you don’t become a clown, or an actor, which we also have in the paddock. So, that's the fine balance. But I'm happy with the way it is."

When it comes to discussing the reasons behind Aston Martin's rise to its current status, his name probably won't be the first to come up. It's the dedication of Stroll, the genius of Fallows or the experience of Aston Martin Group CEO Martin Whitmarsh. It's Alonso's magic, after all. And Krack is the first to give credit to the likes of Stevenson and McCullough.

But, a year and a half since his appointment, there's probably enough evidence now to suggest that Krack himself is also no stranger to the world of, as Berger put it, "the best of the best".

Aston Martin is flying high at the moment, and Krack's influence shouldn't be understated

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images