Krack praises F1 stalwart who has scored more points than AlphaTauri

Stevenson, 55, is a stalwart of the Silverstone squad. He joined the team in its first guise as Jordan in the early 1990s and climbed the ranks to become chief mechanic before moving into his current role in 2005. As sporting director, he leads Aston Martin’s dealings with the FIA.

This year, he compiled successful protests to overturn Fernando Alonso’s pitstop penalty in Saudi Arabia and change the Austrian Grand Prix race result amid the farcical 1200-plus cases of track-limits offences.

With Alonso gaining a place in each case (reclaiming third in Jeddah and rising to fifth in Austria), Stevenson has scored Aston Martin five points this season. Meanwhile, AlphaTauri - currently last in the constructors’ championship after 14 rounds - counts only three points.

Speaking to Autosport/Motorsport.com, Krack singled out Stevenson’s experience when presented with the AlphaTauri comparison.

He said: “I saw that. The thing is, you have to have people like Andy.

“It shows again how important experience is because, first of all, he remembers a lot of incidents.

“And then also he remembers the penalties that came with various incidents.

“If you have someone like that, he can guide [his colleagues].

“Have a look at Alpine or Ferrari there, he remembers a lot of them.

“We have the system at home, which is very structured. But the impulse comes from Andy.”

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR23, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB19

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

In Saudi Arabia , Stevenson presented seven previous cases where teams were not pinged for having jacks touch the car while serving pitstop penalties. This precedent moved the stewards to rescind a 10-second race penalty for Alonso for a similar offence.

Addressing that particular case, Krack said: “Generally, the teams have to do their homework for such situations.

“You need to be prepared for any kind of incidents that are happening, to be able to react fast, because you have only half an hour for protest, and then you have only a short time to bring evidence after the protest is admitted.

“So, it's a matter of using the experience, using all the facts that were there in the past when needed.

“If you, in such a situation, start to think, 'Oh, when did we have this last time?', then it's too late. So, it's a matter of preparation.

“All the teams have huge mission control [operating rooms] at home, with people focusing on different areas. It is the support site preparing all this stuff.

“There is a predefined process, basically. What is the situation? Do we have precedents, yes or no? And if yes, what are they?

“Then, someone is in charge of providing them, as quickly as possible. It's quite simple, to be honest.”