Compassion, respect, and transparency – three things always said to be crucial ingredients to get the most out of Sebastian Vettel, and three things that come second-nature to his new Formula 1 team boss.
Last week, Mike Krack started in his new position as Aston Martin’s F1 team principal. His arrival means an important part of Vettel’s career has come full circle: the voice in his ear during his grand prix weekend debut in 2006 is the one that will give him orders from now on.
Krack joins with an impressive engineering and management background that includes several years as BMW Sauber’s chief F1 engineer, during which he was Vettel’s race engineer when Vettel drove in Friday practice at the 2006 Turkish Grand Prix.
Sixteen years later and Vettel may well revel in their reunion because Krack’s ideology seems tailor-made for the four-time world champion.
Asked by The Race’s Mark Hughes about Vettel having a reputation of being quite sensitive to his work and environment, and if he feels that is a big part of his role, Krack said: “Yes, I think it is super important.
“It does not have to be always the island of comfort for everyone. But I think it’s very important for such high-class drivers that they feel the support of the team.
“What matters here most is being transparent about what we expect, about where we are. And this is something that I handled also with all the drivers that I had in the past. I mean at my former employer [BMW] we have more drivers because we have more projects, and it is quite crucial that you have them all aligned with what you want to achieve and there is no one left out.
“We need to spend time on this subject. We need to spend time with both drivers and also with the reserve driver and all the drivers that you have in the whole system.
“But it’s a matter of being honest and transparent at the end of the day. So far, it has always worked quite easily, if you treat them the way it is necessary.
“And that does not mean that you have to call them every day, but you have to put an ecosystem in place where they can feel trusted and comfortable.”
That should be music to Vettel’s ears. It sounds an awful lot closer to the environment Red Bull gave him than what he found at Ferrari, where Vettel was recruited by people who quickly departed, found himself at odds with the Sergio Marchionne/Maurizio Arrivabene axis of power at times, and was then eventually squeezed out once Charles Leclerc was on the scene.
One of Krack’s former BMW drivers told The Race that, as the man ultimately in charge of the GT roster and who drove for the works Formula E team, he did an excellent job at balancing the human side of the drivers with the demands of the organisation.
At BMW, he was praised for how he handled the difficult situation of who drove in which category, the immediate aftermath of a clash between Alexander Sims and Antonio Felix da Costa while they battled over the lead in a Formula E race, and also the tough task of telling underperforming drivers that they needed to up their game without annihilating their confidence.
Vettel will be familiar with all these scenarios, to a greater or lesser extent. As he approaches another career crossroads – by his own admission he’s yet to decide whether to stay in F1 much longer – he will need to see someone he likes and respects calling the shots to have faith in the Aston Martin organisation.
Vettel had that with the man who helped convince him to join Aston Martin in the first place, Otmar Szafnauer, and he should have that in Szafnauer’s successor.
“It’s always difficult to speak about your own strength,” says Krack when asked by The Race what he will try to bring to the team.
“But yes, having been in engineering for very, very long in F1 but also out of F1, Formula E or Hypercars, it gives you a very, very good overview about key performance indicators that are needed for different categories.
“It is important if you are in a technical management role that you understand these KPIs and what is important to be successful on the technical side because Formula 1 is very technical and very advanced in terms of development.
“My strength is not in engineering though. I manage to bring people together, to give them trust, to enable them [to do their jobs]. I think I can manage to form teams that work well together.
“Now, this is not a five-minute job to have the individuals because you can bring very, very bright individuals and they never work well together. Whereas sometimes it’s more important to have teamwork than the ultimate individuals.
“It’s this fine balance between having good people but also having them together because [the] team is everything. I mean, in F1 we have a large headcount, and we all must pull on the same side of the rope or play onto the same goal with all the people, not only the race team, but everybody who is involved, the full headcount at the factory and everything.
“It’s a matter of bringing them together, having the right spirit and having the right attitude.
“That in the past helped me in my career and the engineering background is something which enables you to really understand what’s happening, and that you focus on the right areas.”
Having previously heard testimony from Krack’s former colleagues, The Race’s own impression from this initial, expansive 40-minute introductory call with F1 media is positive.
Everything indicated of Krack seems to be spot-on: he’s no-nonsense, straightforward, honest and invested in people. Sounds a lot like the star driver he will now hope to convince to stay in F1, right?
“He’s a very nice guy,” says Krack of Vettel. “He manages to surround the team around him by not being nice all the time, but being respectful. This is an ethic that I share largely.
“That’s one of the reasons I think we get along very well. But then, compared to when I knew him last, he’s now a four-time world champion.
“He has accrued a huge amount of experience and he is a very clever guy.
“That is also why he’s managed to combine this experience channelling in the right way and not just saying ‘in the past, I had this’ or ‘in the past I had this’. But he knows exactly what he needs to go faster.
“So from that point of view, it’s great to have him because also he can steer us as a team also in our development.”
It’s more than just Krack and Vettel appearing to be neatly aligned in terms of personal or professional philosophies, though.
Krack has made it clear that he did not seek Vettel’s input in making his decision to join Aston Martin. He says they did not speak beforehand at all, at least about this job.
But there is a pre-existing relationship there, which could be key – especially if Vettel believes this is someone he can trust.
“When Sebastian ran the first time in Turkey in the third car, I was the race engineer to him,” says Krack.
“And this puts maybe a bit of a special link between himself and myself. Because, also, last week, he said, ‘Do you remember Istanbul?’, when he ran the first time in our car! So I think we have a very good relationship.
“We have not been in touch so much over the years after I had left Formula 1. But when we met again, it was like we had seen each other yesterday!
“It was very, very good to catch up. Now we have a lot of stories to exchange not only about racing, but also about family, kids and stuff like that.
“But the discussions that I’m having with him are always extending from what we had in the past. We were very, very close in the past and I have the feeling we will be very close now again.”
It may take time for Krack’s influence to be felt on-track, but his personality and his position of authority means he will swiftly have an impact off-track.
How well Aston Martin responds to that will help determine whether he can lead the team successfully in its intended transformation to a title challenger, and by extension how convinced Vettel will be to stick around.
Vettel knows the Aston Martin project is bigger than the 2022 season alone, with the £200million new facility that chairman Lawrence Stroll has committed to and a mooted engine project all designed to set this team up for long-term success.
But that is part of a five-year plan for Aston Martin to become world champion. Vettel may not be around then. So Aston Martin does have to make some kind of improvement in the short-term as well because Vettel has made it clear that the ultimate reference for how long he stays in F1 is how competitive he can be.
After joking that he hopes his arrival alone is enough to make Vettel want to stay, Krack says: “It’s clear that a guy like Sebastian, a four-time world champion, does not want to be 15th or 12th or eighth. That’s clear.
“It is our task to deliver a performing car, or a performing structure – because I think Sebastian is a clever guy so he will not be focusing just on this year’s car, but focusing more on what is happening [longer-term] and if he sees the potential.
“If we can manage to offer this to him, I think we have a chance to keep him for longer.
“To be honest with you, I have not spoken with him about it. This is something that will have to come obviously.
“But all in all, it is our task to deliver the right package. Then Sebastian will stay and other drivers would like to join.”
