It’s a case that has been shaking the paddock for 48 hours in Barcelona, between Aston Martin et Red Bull. The British team entered the Spanish Grand Prix with a deeply evolved AMR22, decked out with sidepods which almost exactly take on the shapes of those of the RB18. If imitating or drawing inspiration from the competition is obviously not prohibited in Formula 1, the processes used to copy an opponent are closely scrutinized, especially since the FIA has tightened its screws following the affair of the “pink Mercedes” in 2020. The main actor was already the Silverstone team.
The FIA, precisely, investigated before the Grand Prix to shed light on the developments of Aston Martin, while reverse engineering is now formally prohibited. The authority finally found nothing to complain regarding and declared the AMR22 compliant in its new specification. However, Red Bull is monitoring the situation very carefully and expressed suspicions on Friday, Helmut Marko referring to, in a very accusatory tonea data leak. Christian Horner was more cautioususing the conditional but underlining a real concern by recalling that a number of engineers had recently moved from Milton Keynes to Silverstone.
Mute so far, the staff of Aston Martin refuted all these accusations this Saturday when Andy Green, technical director of the English team, appeared at a press conference in Barcelona. Impossible, this time, to dodge questions on the hot topic of the moment. In particular, he assures that the concept was already in the engineering pipeline before it appeared on the Red Bull at the start of the season.
“I don’t know what these accusations Red Bull is talking regarding”he defends himself. “All I can say is that at no time did we receive any data from any team or anyone. The FIA intervened and carried out an investigation, they looked at all the data relating to the history of this car, she interviewed everyone involved and concluded that it was a completely independent development.As far as the point where you mention potential employees, this car was designed in the mid-1990s. “Last year, in parallel with the launch car, and the majority of the new stuff was prepped before anyone from Red Bull came along. So I think the accusations are way off the mark.”
“I’m disappointed, especially since the FIA has declared the car compliant”he adds in front of the attitude of Red Bull. “They came and analyzed everything, and they said it was legitimate and independent work. They are the only ones who see all the data; the only ones who, for us but also for all the teams, can pass judgment regulation. End of story for me.”
Going into a bit more detail on Aston Martin’s approach to its sidepods, Andy Green points out that two development paths were carved out during the early design phase, and the wrong one was taken for the start of the championship. . The Briton thus claims to have been surprised when he saw from winter testing that Red Bull had implemented an idea similar to its alternative.
“If you look at the development of the car that is here today, you see that everything happened at the end of last year, before we saw anything”he hammers. “We had dual leadership. It was a shock but also a surprise to see Red Bull come up with a similar concept. offered to us, and that we had taken the wrong one.”
