New Aston Martin F1 team principal Mike Krack says he's been overwhelmed by the magnitude of the team's F1 project which he says has "all the ingredients" it needs to be successful.
The former BMW motorsport boss settled in this week at Aston where he has taken over the responsibilities previously held by Otmar Szafnauer.
The latter steered Team Silverstone through good and bad times for over twelve years and helped it consistently over-deliver.
The American appeared all set to guide the team into a new era under the Aston Martin brand and the ownership of its executive chairman Lawrence Stroll.
But the latter had other plans in mind, and Szafnauer's unexpected exit in early January was followed a week later by the announcement of Krack's arrival.
Despite the German's credentials, which include a stint in Formula 1 with BMW-Sauber in 2006 and 2007, Szafnauer will be a hard act to follow. But Krack knows all too well that F1 is all about ambitious targets and big challenges.
"I think Formula 1 is like Champions League, and every professional football player wants to play Champions League. It's the same for motorsport engineers or drivers," Krack told the media this week.
"From that point of view, it's the ultimate place to be. The pressure is there but I think you have to turn that into positive pressure. We want to succeed, we have to succeed.
"We spend so much time and so much money, that's not for coming second or just for participating.
"Now, obviously, you cannot switch and be winning from the first day of a season, others have tried and for very long.
"But at the end of the day, it's a huge challenge but it's also a huge opportunity there that we have now. And with that brand, with the Aston Martin brand, I think we have all the ingredients that you need to be successful."
Stroll's long-term plan to push Aston Martin F1 to the top of F1's pyramid has led to big recruitment spree for the team, with Krack's signing complemented by the future arrival of former Red Bull aero man Dan Fallows as the outfit's future technical director and the more recent contracting of former Mercedes chief aerodynamicist Eric Blandin.
But Aston's biggest enterprise in the past year has been the building of its new state-of-the-art facility at Silverstone which broke ground last summer.
The 37.000 square meter campus that will include a three-unit factory housing the team's manufacturing facility and its new wind tunnel will measure up to Stroll's ambitions of taking Aston Martin to the top of the grid in F1.
"It's overwhelming," admitted Krack. "I mean, I have been here a couple of times before my official start. And just when you see this huge new building being built, it is overwhelming, it has to be.
"I think you have to approach this in a humble way, you have to first come here and understand how this team is working. Because we must not forget this ‘Team Silverstone’ is a great team, for all these years it always over-performed to its possibilities.
"And it is important to find out where are the strengths of the team, and where can we make it stronger, or where we can improve on some of the weaknesses it's having.
"At the moment I have a lot of discussions with individuals, with team leaders and department leaders, to understand how the team is run, how the system is operating."
Krack made clear that he has no intention of "turning things upside down" at the outset at Aston, insisting he'll take a "conservative" approach to change and to blending in his own philosophy.
"I think it would be foolish to come here on the first day and try to turn upside down every stone and rearrange," he said.
"So the team has a good record, it needs a couple of things to make the next steps. But it is not by turning everything upside down that we will manage that.
" So I take a conservative approach here, try to learn as much as possible, try to bring my philosophy into it, try to bring my thinking into it, which is always positive teamwork, because motivation comes by itself.
"Although the people here are extremely motivated, you can believe me. So it's a matter of channeling this properly."
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