Aston Martin won’t get involved in ‘any war of words’ over ‘three Red Bull cars’ quips

Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack won’t get into it with Red Bull despite the Bahrain race winners calling his AMR23 a third Red Bull.

Fernando Alonso joined Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez on the Sakhir podium, the new Aston Martin signing taking third on his debut.

Perez quipped that it was “nice to see three Red Bull cars on the podium” while Christian Horner later said it was “good to see the old car going so well”.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Asked if Red Bull’s comments were a ‘disservice’ to the work Aston Martin had done, team principal Krack simply told the media including PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher: “I mean, we always decided we will not go into any war of words.”

But while it could be said Perez and Horner made light of the Red Bull influence on the AMR23, former Red Bull aerodynamicist Dan Fallows playing an integral role in the 2023 Aston Martin,Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko took a harder line.

“It’s true that what Fallows had in his head cannot be erased,” the 79-year-old told Servus TV. “Copying the focus is not prohibited, but can you copy in such detail without having documentation of our car?

“We had three Red Bulls on the podium, only the last one with a different engine.”

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Although Alonso finished third on Sunday, Krack has urged the team to keep its feet on the ground and stay “humble”.

“I think the gap is still substantial,” he said. “We don’t know how much management that Red Bull had to do and did.

“I think it was quite comfortable for them to just get the mandatory tyres through and cruise the race to the end. So I think we have now one good result, we have improved our car.

“But we are fighting here with teams that are used to drive on the front, they are very used to high-intensity development. So I think let’s be respectful and humble, and see how it continues.”

He’s also ruled out the team becoming regular podium finishers, but concedes that is the dream.

“We must not lose the ground under our feet and dream about podiums straight away,” he said. “We knew that we were not bad. We knew that we had a strong race pace.

“But so many things could go wrong. And after two laps, and I was not dreaming about the podium, to be very honest with you. So you have to just see how the race unfolds and just focus on your job. And we had also the attrition of Charles, which we shouldn’t forget.

“So all in all, I think you can dream about podiums. But you should not believe that.”

As for concerns that Aston Martin could falter given they’re not used to fighting at the front of the field, the German says while Aston Martin may be a new name, ‘Team Silverstone’ is not a new outfit.

The team most recently won a race as Racing Point, Sergio Perez P1 at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix.

“We must not forget, we speak here about Team Silverstone,” he said. “Team Silverstone is a very experienced team with a lot of fantastic people that have done that already.

“We clearly saw it with the race strategy. The team did not get carried away by stopping early, by trying to undercut, but by sticking to its plan, and the tyre advantage that was built-in at the end of the day, was instrumental also to help to pass. I think we’ll continue to try to do our best there.”