Mike Krack, who spent 20 years at the highest level of motor sport as an engineer, is taking over as sporting director of the Aston Martin Cognizant team with the aim of winning the championship within four years. (Photos: Aston Martin)

Mike Krack, who spent 20 years at the highest level of motor sport as an engineer, is taking over as sporting director of the Aston Martin Cognizant team with the aim of winning the championship within four years. (Photos: Aston Martin)

Fifteen years after having worked with Sebastian Vettel at BMW Sauber, the Luxembourger Mike Krack has joined him at Aston Martin Cognizant. The former is no longer a test driver but the number one driver, and the latter is no longer an anonymous engineer but the team's sporting director. 

One year after returning to Formula One after a 60-year absence, Aston Martin has only four more 'seasons' to win the title. Twenty-four hours after sacking its sporting director, Otmar Szafnauer, the team owned by billionaire Lawrence Stroll has gone for Luxembourg's Mike Krack.

"We want to win. Together we will do it," promises the engineer, who until now has been in charge of BMW's sporting activities from Munich (BMW's Formula E, GT and IMSA, as well as its planned expansion into the new LMDh formula for IMSA and the WEC, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans). Krack adds: "It is a pleasure and an honour to have been appointed to the position of principal team of the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One team, and I am very grateful to Lawrence [Stroll] and Martin [Whitmarsh] for giving me such a fantastic opportunity."

"Aston Martin is one of the greatest automotive brands in the world, and to have been asked to play a leading role in achieving the on-track success in Formula One that such an illustrious name so richly deserves is a challenge I intend to take on with energy and enthusiasm," said the man who previously experienced Formula One at BMW Sauber.

"I have been working in motorsport for more than 20 years and I worked in Formula 1 with Seb Vettel in 2006 and 2007, when I was an engineer at BMW Sauber and he was a test driver for the team. I have immense respect for his speed and ability and it will be great to have him back. Lance Stroll is also a very fast and talented driver, with 100 Grand Prix starts to his name, and I'm very much looking forward to working closely with him."

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.