Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack says he was "absolutely fine" with Fernando Alonso's sharp comments in last weekend's Japanese Grand Prix.
During the race, Alonso gave his team a hard time over the radio, criticizing the early timing of his lap 11 pitstop that put him in contention with Alpine's Esteban Ocon.
As the Spaniard grew increasingly frustrated with his inability to overtake Ocon, he said: "You've thrown me to the lions by stopping that early mate. Unbelievable".
Alonso also complained over the radio about his car's lack of straight-line speed, a weakness due to the high-downforce package Aston had opted to use at Suzuka.
The incisive two-time F1 world champion has never been one to hold make his feelings, but Krack was unfazed by his driver's acute remarks which he said were a source of motivation for Aston.
"I think you can listen to the 20 drivers, and everybody's really hard," he said. "Everybody's passionate. If the driver would not be doing something like that, what driver is it?
"So, I think, it's fine. For us, we take it as a motivation and it also opens up always a different view of things. So, absolutely fine."
Regarding the AMR23's lack of straight-line speed at Suzuka, Krack said the high-downforce settings implemented on its car in Japan was a necessary trade-off to help limit tyre degradation.
"The more you bolt-on, the better pace you have for better degradation, and vice versa," he explained.
"So, it's a matter of you have to make a choice. At the end of the day, we've tried actually to go with a bit lower or to go with higher over the course of the weekend. And we finally decided to race like that.
"I think the car was a bit better than we expected in terms of performance in the race in terms of degradation. So, I think it was the right choice."
Although Aston Martin hit the ground running at the start of its campaign, the team's performance dwindled over the summer, pushing it down the order.
Krack suggested that the team's lack of development relative to its rivals caused it to lose ground.
"It's development," he said. "You see some competitors have really made big progress, some less, and it seems quite simple. We have not done enough.
"Surely we would have liked to have more performance from our upgrades, but there is still some to come, so I am confident that we can close a little bit the gap."
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