Aston Martin’s Australian GP was quite complicated at the 2026 Formula 1 opener. In fact, Mike Krack, currently the British team’s trackside chief, said that Fernando Alonso’s pit stop was a real mess.
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The two-time champion’s race seemed to have come to an end after pitting on lap 13. However, later, the Spaniard returned to the track a few laps later – when he returned, he had lost so many laps that he was still behind Valtteri Bottas, who had also retired.
Before last Sunday’s GP, Adrian Newey had said that the excessive vibration in the AMR26 would make it impossible for the driver duo to run for many consecutive laps in the race, and when Alonso stopped, speculation suggested it was to preserve the nerves in his hands.
It turns out the story was a bit different, as Krack confirmed it was a mix-up in Aston Martin’s internal communication that led Alonso to make the stop.
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“The pit stop was a mess. It wasn’t a mess on the garage side, it was a mess on our side. The communication was basically confused. You have so many channels and sometimes things go wrong. One of the things we need to recognize is that we haven’t done much and this was the first time we did it live and it didn’t go well. So, that’s something we need to review in the future,” he said.
Regarding the retirement of both Fernando and Lance Stroll, Mike confirmed that it was the lack of spare parts that caused the team not to take any more risks.
“It is common knowledge that we don’t have many spare parts and there wasn’t much to gain from the situation we were in, so we made the decision together,” he added.
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