SILVERSTONE, England (AP) — Aston Martin has replaced Mike Krack as team principal but is keeping him in a high-profile role at Formula 1 races after a disappointing 2024 season.
The team said Friday that Krack, who had been team principal since 2022, would move to a new role as Chief Trackside Officer focusing on “getting the most performance out of the car at the racetrack”.
Chief executive Andy Cowell — who led Mercedes' engine program during its run of titles in the 2010s — will now double up as team principal. Cowell joined the team last year and became chief executive in October. Krack's trackside team will report to Cowell, and so will the staff at Aston Martin's headquarters in England.
Aston Martin said the change was made to ensure “clarity of leadership and as part of a shift to a flatter structure.”
Aston Martin was fifth in the constructors' standings in 2024, the same position as in 2023. However, with Aston Martin aiming to become a title-winning team in future, the season was widely seen as a step backward as it lost ground to better-performing rivals like McLaren and Ferrari.
Fernando Alonso finished on the podium eight times for Aston Martin in 2023, but the team's best result of 2024 was his fifth place at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The organization shakeup also comes ahead of the arrival in March of car design great Adrian Newey. He left Red Bull last year and will have the title of “managing technical partner.”
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
FILE -Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso of Spain makes a pit stop during the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Hamad I Mohammed, Pool, File)
A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.
A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.
Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.
For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.
The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”
Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.
Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
