Aston Martin Racing has appointed a new F1 team principal for the 2022 season. Former head of BMW’s global motorsport operation Mike Krack has joined the outfit after the departure of long-standing team member Otmar Szafnauer, but the new boss will be taking on a Formula 1 team in crisis.

Krack has plenty of experience during his time in motorsport, after a decade in Formula One working for Sauber. Most recently Krack was in charge of the BMW Formula E team as well as the GT and IMSA programmes. But Krack will be tackling some significant issues in a team that has over the years gained a reputation of punching well above its weight, but now appears to be headed to disaster.

A source within the team has revealed to this website a deepening resentment in the factory at the situation unfolding.

Canadian billionaire Lawerence Stroll took over the self confessed ‘plucky family team’ known as Force India owned by Vijay Mallya. A team who gained a deserved reputation for making the most of limited resources, often at the head of the fiercely competitive midfield and frequently embarrassing far better funded competitors.

Now the squad has received significant investment and a total rebrand as the official works Aston Martin team with the focus of a marketing vehicle for the carmaker rather than a grassroots style racing team.

Further, the team has gone from a modest, but efficient workforce to a far larger entity of what appears to be ‘headless chickens’ according to our source. Despite the 200+ additional employees, the issues within the team have impacted the development of the brand new 2022 Formula 1 car, the AMR22, set to be the first car of the grid with a presentation date of Thursday the 10th of February. 

Despite being first out of the blocks with the show car, TJ13 understands that the real car will be far from ready when the first winter tests start later in February. Furthermore the source reveals that:

“The car is miles behind to the point if it makes 1st test at Barcelona on Feb 23rd everyone will be so surprised you’ll hear the cheer from outer space….”

Understandably Lawrence Stroll is not a happy bunny; the new highly paid executives and their underlings too scared to voice what needs to be said in countless meetings in an attempt to resolve the problems, whilst significant sums of money are being thrown at the issues.

Indeed it seems to many within the team feel that the former team principal Otmar Szafnauer jumped ship to Alpine having seen the writing on the wall. The new boss Mike Krack will have a mountain to climb to get the team back on track.