Aston Martin knew that it could not afford the slightest glitch in FP1 if it were to make the most of its upgrades in Austin, but a glitch is exactly what it encountered.
Last weekend, the Silverstone-based outfit introduced changes to the floor edge of its AMR23 as well a revised diffuser and engine cover as part of its bid to improve the aero efficiency of its car.
However, issues on both of its cars in Friday’s single practice session deprived the team of mileage which in turn prevented it from optimizing its modified package.
Both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were concluded qualifying in the lower tier of the field while there was no progress to speak of in Saturday’s Sprint event.
Aston subsequently opted to pull its cars out of parc fermé to undertake wholesale changes, with Alonso reverting to a previous-spec package while Stroll stuck with the car’s Austin updates.
Surprisingly, and despite pitlane starts, both drivers managed to carry themselves into the top ten at one point, but floor damage likely inflicted by a kerb forced Alonso into retirement while Stroll concluded his race 9th on the road before being bumped up to P7 in the wake of the post-race exclusions of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
"You need to be aware of the risk," commented team boss Mike Krack when asked if it had been a mistake to roll out an upgrade at a sprint weekend.
"And we lost the Friday due to preparation, we were not well enough prepared, we overheated the front corners, and we lost the session.
"When you have only one hour when we came here, we said we have to be 100% in this one session. If we have one glitch, you don't have the data that you want to have.
"And we had a glitch, and we didn't have the data. So I think it's manageable if you have no issues, to bring upgrades into a sprint. And other teams are doing it. It's doable, but the risk is higher."
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Krack admitted that Stroll’s points were a welcome reward for the team’s efforts.
"You have to accept that after three days of really hard work there are a couple of smiling faces in the garage," he said. "And this is also well deserved. But you have also to see what a missed opportunity it might have been.
"And this is the reality. So, fact is that on Friday, we should have done our homework, we didn't do it. And we had the consequences all over the weekend.
"Now, there is always the rule, don't bring upgrades to the sprint weekend. When you take this decision to do it, nevertheless, you know what the risk is, and then you cannot complain when it happens. It's another lesson learned."
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Krack acknowledged that the team’s performance in last Sunday’s race was unexpected given the disadvantages of a pitlane start.
"You know that it will be very difficult to score if you start from the pitlane, especially with the pace that we had yesterday,” he said. “Obviously, now we know that was the right decision.
"I think we were also helped a little bit by circumstance, because you can see that always when we came [behind other cars], they went to pit. I think the whole pit stop sequence started around lap nine, 10, or 11.
"And we had two or three or four cars that just cleared, that we didn't have to pass because they went quite early. We were surprised how early some of them pitted. But it was good, because then you're running more in free air than if you are in traffic."
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