Aston Martin arrived in Barcelona with a series of improvements for its AMR22, among which the changes in the pontoon, floor, Halo and rear wing areas stood out.
However, the similarities between the revamped Aston Martin and Red Bull’s RB18 were quickly noted and obviously caught the attention of specialists, causing the design to be dubbed “Green Red Bull” .
It is not the first time that the Silverstone team has been accused of “copying” the design of another car. In the 2020 season, the Racing Point car was nicknamed “Pink Mercedes” due to its obvious resemblance to the 2019 Mercedes.
At the time, the FIA compared the pink car and the Mercedes car, declaring it legal, the same thing that happened in Barcelona this Friday after the investigation of the renewed Aston Martin.
Formula 1’s governing body explained that during the “routine pre-event legality check” in which they investigated the new Aston Martin parts, “it became apparent that a number of features of the AMR22 resembled those of some of its rivals. “.
That prompted a thorough investigation of the car to confirm whether it complied with article 17.3 of the 2022 F1 technical regulations, referring to reverse engineering and “possible illicit transfer of intellectual property”.
Through investigation, the FIA found that Aston Martin had complied with the rules throughout its process, making the new updates completely legal.
“The investigation, which involved CAD checks and a very detailed analysis of the development process that Aston Martin had followed, confirmed that no wrongdoing had been committed and therefore the FIA considers Aston Martin’s aerodynamic updates to be legal. “, reads the FIA statement.
“Article 17.3 specifically prohibits ‘reverse engineering’, that is, the digital process in which photographs (or other data) are converted into CAD models, in addition to prohibiting the transfer of intellectual property between teams, but at the same time , this article allows the designs of the different cars to be influenced by those of their competitors, as has always happened in Formula 1”.
“In the analysis we carried out, we confirmed that the processes followed by Aston Martin were in accordance with the requirements of this article,” it concluded.
