Aston Martin has been billed as top midfield contender in the wake of pre-season testing, but team boss Mike Krack is keeping it real, warning that there are no miracles in Formula 1.
Team Silverstone enjoyed a productive three days in Bahrain last week, with Fernando Alonso assiduously handling the bulk of his team's workload.
On paper, Aston Martin appears as a force to be reckoned with in F1's midfield battle which is expected once again to be extremely tight.
But Krack is keeping his outfit's feet on the ground, and steering clear of making any bold projections ahaed of next weekend's curtain raiser.
"It's very difficult on such a test to make a proper judgement," he told the media in Bahrain.
"Last year we were P4, P4, P10 over the three days [and] we seem very similar now, and in the race weekend we were out in Q1.
"Just to tell you how much a test like that can give you an indication of where you are."
Alonso set the tenth fastest time overall over the three days of running in Bahrain, but the Spaniard's pace during the team's race simulation on Saturday caught the attention of Aston's rivals.
However, Krack was quick to play down Aston's long-run performance given that track conditions had been nearly ideal.
"The race simulation was certainly not bad, but we must also not forget the track conditions were really good," he said.
"You had a lot of rubber, because there [were] other teams [using] new tyres, a lot of times also with soft rubber – this is helping when you do a race simulation.
"It is nice to have good long runs, but you need to put them into the right context and let's not start dreaming. I think Fernando said it earlier, there's no miracles in F1."
Regardless of how positive his team's performance in testing has been viewed, Krack says Aston must keep its head down and its focus on its preset targets.
"For us, we must not lose our goals," he continued. "Our goal was to make a step forward in the performance of the car in the team, and this still remains our objective.
"These dynamics that you can sometimes have like someone says, 'He's very good' and then someone [else] says, 'He's good and he's very good', like when the word goes around the children at school.
"We need to keep our feet on the ground. Our expectations are always high and at this time of the year everybody wants to do well. We are realists."
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