Team Principal Mike Krack talks fine margins in the pack, good strategy, broken radios and another chance to see our junior drivers in action.
The end of the season is in sight, but we're not there yet. This weekend, we're swapping the neon of Vegas for the bright lights of Lusail International Circuit.
In his penultimate column of the season, Team Principal Mike Krack reflects on how it would be almost impossible to get two Grands Prix more different than Las Vegas and Qatar. He also has a few words to say about a monumental championship for Max Verstappen, a tough race for us in Las Vegas, the return of F2 and F1 Academy this weekend, and how everything can provide a useful learning experience… even a broken radio.
This is Mike on…
Bust in Vegas
"Leaving Vegas without any points was disappointing, but I think both drivers had good races with cars that weren't great. Lance's race fascinates me. He did it in radio silence after losing comms on the first lap. There's usually a lot of interaction between the driver and the pitwall, with their engineer giving them switch changes and tyre management information every lap. Lance handled the silence really well, being left alone to drive. This is something we're going to discuss. Maybe we should be more selective in the information we relay, and do so less frequently?
"I thought we should have qualified a little higher. That may be a bit harsh though because Lance only got one lap after his energy recovery system failure, which the team did a brilliant job to fix to get him out in time to complete a flying lap.
"I think we could have got both cars into Q2, but the Q3 we had in Baku would have been difficult, which is the last time we raced with a package similar to this. In Azerbaijan, we were just ahead of Haas and RB, now we're just a little behind, having been slightly out-developed. It isn't by much, but the fine margins in F1 at the moment mean you slip back a few positions whenever you lose ground. It's a very narrow band splitting the grid at the moment."
Solid strategy
"We made good strategy decisions in Vegas. They didn't bring any reward in terms of points, but they were good choices. Starting Fernando on the Soft tyre was aggressive, as was getting rid of them early and going onto the Hard tyres. How do we come to these decisions? The strategy team present a preview at the start of the weekend, featuring all of the factors they think will influence the race. Then, over the weekend, they analyse tyre behaviour, track performance, weather, competitors, and from this build up the picture.
"We get updates on Friday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday morning and discuss it. They make a strategy proposal before the race, and in Vegas we went with their initial proposal. Fernando is on it in those meetings, very focused and interrogating everyone on things they may not have considered, proposing alternatives. It's always a good discussion and out of that comes a final decision. It was very good in Vegas: Fernando asked the questions; the strategy team were confident with the answers, and that's what we did."
Monumental from Max
"Usually, I talk about our team, but I want to say a few words about Max Verstappen. This year has been a masterpiece. He's won the Drivers' Championship with two races remaining, and without the fastest car. No one can say it isn't deserved.
"What I take away from his season is the idea that, despite this being a championship that revolves around the cars, the drivers can still make a difference. Somewhere like Brazil, where the leading cars were very evenly matched, he put in an outstanding performance and made the difference. It's what the very best drivers do. I think we saw similar in Zandvoort last year from Fernando: the car wasn't great but with a driver that was absolutely on top of everything, we came away with a podium."
The big transition
"As back-to-back races go, Las Vegas and Qatar really couldn't be more different. Everything is opposite. We've moved from a street track with mostly low-speed corners to a purpose-built, permanent track where everything is high-speed. Vegas was cold, and dry; Qatar is hot and humid; we've swapped from the softest tyres to the hardest; and we've switched to the Sprint weekend format. Fortunately, F1 teams are the masters when it comes to adjusting to changing boundary conditions. We're very flexible, and I'm not expecting any issues."
Juniors in tow
"It's great this weekend that we have a big support race calendar accompanying F1. Jak Crawford and Tina Hausmann are back in their respective series, F2 and F1 Academy, for the first time in a while. These are new circuits for Tina, so she has some learning to do, but it's also an opportunity to show what she has learned so far. She's had some technical issues this year, hopefully this will provide her an opportunity get good miles in and really build that experience.
"As for Jak, while he hasn't raced since F2 was last on the track in Baku, he's been with us at several races, including Las Vegas, and has spent a lot of time helping us out in the simulator. He's sitting fifth in the championship with two weekends to go, and I think he can finish higher than that. These are two tracks where he can prosper and finish 2024 on a high. As always, he has a desk in our engineering office, so between his own F2 sessions, he can come in, listen and learn and, hopefully, gain some knowledge that he can turn to his maximum advantage in F2."
Hard work
"It was a long flight from Vegas to Qatar – 15 hours in total. Time for me to do a bit of everything: some work; have a sleep; watch a movie. I'm conscious that I've got an easier week than many of the team. The race in Vegas finished at midnight; packdown went on until 06:00, and we were departing at 13:00 on Sunday. We arrived at 20:00 on Monday in Doha, and the team were back in the garage at sunrise on Tuesday morning.
"I wasn't in the garage at 08:00, but for the people who were – mechanics, garage technicians, our hospitality and commercial team and so on – it's hard work. People outside perhaps don't see it. They see F1 from Friday onwards, when everything is nice and shiny – but to get to that involves a lot of effort and not much sleep. Even for those people in the perfect mental state to do it, it's a massive physical challenge. Not easy for them, not easy for everyone at home. Hats off to them because they make F1 tick."
Arabian nightsArabian nights
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