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Fernando Alonso’s contribution to Aston Martin’s leap to the podium in Formula 1 this season is “something we must not underestimate”, says team principal Mike Krack.
Alonso has taken three podiums in three races at the start of 2023 to put Aston Martin, who finished seventh last year, second in the constructors’ championship behind Red Bull.
Krack says the 41-year-old two-time champion has had a transformative effect on a team who have also made a major step forward with their car.
“From the first day, he brought a lot of extra energy, a lot of extra motivation to the team,” Krack tells BBC Sport, “just by the way he is and the way he is approaching it. He’s very, very positive.
“If you lead by example, it’s very simple to lead. If you say, ‘The team has to push, but I am on the beach’ it is much more difficult to get the team to push than if the driver is there as well.
“Fernando is the first there in the morning and is the last to leave.
“These are little things, where as a team you realise: ‘Oh, here is someone who’s serious about what he’s doing.’ He’s infecting everybody like that.
“This helps us to extract the last 5-10% from everybody, because if you see the driver is pushing so much, well, if the driver is already so motivated, we will be as well, because normally you always try to get the drivers to push more. He is really the opposite.”
Performance director Tom McCullough says Alonso’s economy of language and precision of expression have also been instrumental as the team seek to understand and begin to develop their car.
“He has got a wealth of experience and he’s very efficient with how he talks and what he wants from the car, the team, everything,” McCullough says.
“He has been there, done it, got the T-shirt. So when he talks, it’s worth listening to. He is really wanting this project to work. So he is saying:
‘Look at this area; it is not our strong point. Look at this.’ That helps lift the team.
“He knows how to talk in a way that the people listening will understand and react to. And that’s a really great skill to have as a driver, because nowadays hundreds of people listen to what they say.”
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