Aston Martin: AMR22 development hindered by crashes

Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack says the team's disastrous Australian Grand Prix weekend will likely hinder the development of the team's AMR22.

The Silverstone-based squad left Melbourne battered and bruised, and with a crate full of broken parts because of multiple crashes by both its drivers at Albert Park.

Sebastian Vettel off his team's incident-packed weekend with an engine failure on Friday that preceded a crash in FP3.

The German was emulated in the same session by teammate Lance Stroll who then suffered a daft run-in with Nicholas Latifi in qualifying.

Vettel then capped off his troublesome return to duty by crashing again on race day, which left Aston licking its wounds and running low on spare parts.

Aston's AMR22 is a long way off the pace, but its drivers are making matters worse by depriving the team of crucial track time.

"We had a very difficult weekend because we had a lot of car damage," said Krack. "It started already on Friday, we had a small problem on the power unit, which we had to change.

"So we didn't get so much time. And then obviously, the on-track incidents that were visible to everybody led to a lot of work."

Krack suggested that Aston Martin was expecting a step up in performance in Australia, although it's unclear on what he based that assumption.

"I think when we came here, we thought we will have been a little bit better than we have been before," he said.

"But obviously we could not show it so much over the weekend, because then we had much more disruption than you can afford at the end of the day.

"So I think at the end of the race, we were still in the position where we hoped we could score, but then eventually it didn't happen. Overall, a quite disappointing weekend, I have to say.

"So now we need to really collect all the bits that we have, as we are starting to run low on spares. So it's something that we need to address."

• Aston Martin boss: Vettel being off so much 'is not normal'

With the team's resources devoted in the short term to producing replacement parts, Krack was asked if Aston's timeline for introducing major updates had now been disrupted.

"I am quite sure you have counted the amount of incidents and the amount of wings and front suspensions that we have damaged," said the German.

"So you can calculate quickly how many we will need to go to Imola, and actually yes, the question is correct.

"Will we have capacity to develop, or will we need to use our capacity for making spares? So these discussions are ongoing."

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