Aston Martin unveiled on Thursday afternoon, ahead of the 2022 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix , a series of upgrades to its AMR22 single-seater, with design concepts that were quickly reminiscent of Red Bull’s RB18.
The FIA said it had investigated the matter after noting the similarities as part of its routine pre-event checks, but felt Silverstone “had followed the correct processes” in designing the upgrades, thereby complying with regulations.
However, Red Bull responded by issuing a statement stating that the transfer of its intellectual property would be a “serious breach” of the regulations. Several of the Austrian team’s staff, including former aerodynamics chief Dan Fallows , have left for Aston Martin in recent months.
“Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, after all,” energy drink team manager Christian Horner told Sky Sports after Friday practice in Spain.
“It’s not a coincidence that we’ve had some people switch from Red Bull to Aston Martin over the winter and the early part of this season,” he continued. “The FIA brought it to our attention earlier in the week, when they said ‘we have a car that looks a lot like yours, can we have a list of your designs to see how they were made?’ So that immediately sets off alarm bells.”
“Now what’s permissible, we see it from top to bottom in the paddock, individuals moving from team to team after a ‘ gardering ‘ period. What they have in their head, that’s fair game, they’re the knowledge they possess,” said the head of Red Bull.
“What’s not fair, and it’s totally unacceptable, something we wouldn’t accept, is that there has been any transfer of intellectual property,” Horner said.
The FIA clamped down on the rules surrounding the ‘reverse engineering’ of cars in the wake of the “pink Mercedes ” controversy in 2020, when Racing Point , the name previously carried by the Aston Martin team, tried to copy the design of the champion silver arrow in 2019 through photographs.
However, the Milton Keynes outfit’s boss said Aston Martin’s updates could not have been designed in the same way, as “the look (of the RB18) wasn’t revealed until a month or so ago.” , which means that “the work started much earlier”.
Horner would not reveal whether Red Bull had any proof of the transfer of intellectual property, but confirmed that the team would try to investigate internally by looking at its software.
“We have our own protections, we know exactly what is being watched and where that software is being controlled,” the Briton said. “But I think it’s the job of the regulator, the FIA, because they have the access, and we trust them a lot to ensure that there is no transfer of intellectual property, that there has been no abuse of that, so it is very much their work to go watch that.”
Horner added that it is up to the international federation, as the regulatory body, to ensure that the rules have been met, not least because of concerns about “the precedent being set”.
“It’s not the biggest problem for us unless Aston Martin starts to beat us,” he said. “But for the teams that are in the middle, it could have a material effect on them, the most important thing we want to make sure is that our intellectual property is protected and hasn’t been abused.”
