Mike Krack weighs in on Fernando Alonso’s reputation for being difficult to manage

迈克布莱恩没有看到费尔南多的迹象lonso’s reputation for being difficult to manage, after all they don’t need to manage each other as they’re working together.

Alonso joined Aston Martin at the beginning of this season with the Spaniard said to be annoyed by Alpine’s offer of a one-year deal, and surprised his 2022 team boss Otmar Szafnauer when his Aston Martin move was announced just days after Sebastian Vettel announced he’d be vacating the seat.

While many pundits questioned the Spaniard’s thinking given Alpine were fighting for fourth in the standings with Aston Martin lagging down in seventh, Alonso and Aston Martin have been the stars of the first part of the season.

Mike Krack has an ‘open and transparent’ relationship with Fernando Alonso

On the podium six times in the first eight races, there were plenty of pats on the back between the double World Champion and his new team but those celebrations have dimmed of late.

无论它是一个落后的重击opment race, the revised Pirelli tyres as Alonso has suggested, or a report of Aston Martin having torevise their front wing buildto meet the FIA’s flexi-wing requirements, Alonso’s best result in the last four grands prix has been two P5s.

It has former Williams and Ferrari team manager Peter Windsor questioning what happens when “one day it all comes crashing down probably, knowing poor old Fernando.”

But while he believes Alonso is a “very difficult driver politically to run in the team”, Krack says there has been no sign of that in his interactions with the 42-year-old.

“I don’t think we need to manage each other, because he’s a team member, like all of us are,” Krack toldMotorsport.comwhen asked about Alonso’s reputation of being difficult to manage.

“Obviously, he’s the most exposed with the highest profile, so obviously, you listen to what he’s doing, and you care about what he’s saying, and all that.

“But he knows that we want to do this together. And we are also humble and honest, if we cannot achieve the targets that we have set or that maybe he expects from us.

“So, I think the key for us at this stage is really to have as open and transparent a relationship as possible. And working together eye on eye without saying who is the manager. And this has worked quite well so far.”

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“The collaboration has been fantastic, all the time,” the German continued. “And I think what is quite important is he knows the weaknesses of the car, and we also go through it together.

“So, we know what to expect up front and we decide a lot of stuff together. And this is key, because if you have someone like that with that experience, with this cleverness, with this desire, you have to involve him because if you do, you only gain from it.

“This is the path that we try to follow. Not saying: ‘You are only the driver’, but trying to get all this, also the positiveness, that he can bring – and I think this helps a lot.”

12 races into the season and Alonso is holding on to third place in theDrivers’ standingsby a single point ahead of Lewis Hamilton while Aston Martin are P3 in the Constructors’ Championship, five points ahead of Ferrari.

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