Spanish GP: Aston Martin ‘Red Bull-like’ car cleared after FIA investigation into upgrades

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Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz comments on allegations that Aston Martin has developed a ‘Red Bull green’ car.

Aston Martin was given clearance to use its new car despite its similarities to Red Bull’s after an FIA investigation confirmed there were “no irregularities” and the upgrades were “in compliance”.

Many teams have brought major upgrades to the Spanish GP, but Aston Martin’s significantly different AMR22 has stood out due to its various characteristics similar to those of Red Bull, currently the fastest car in F1.

F1 has made efforts to crack down on ‘copycat’ attempts in recent years, with Aston Martin, formerly known as Racing Point, being penalized in 2020 for a car dubbed ‘Pink Mercedes’.

With the new car dubbed ‘Green Red Bull’ this week, Red Bull had been questioning the updates.

But Aston Martin had insisted they designed the car over the winter, with the FIA ​​confirming the car passed a “pre-event legality check” in Barcelona.

“During this [legality check]it became apparent that a number of features of the Aston Martin resembled those of another competitor,” read a statement from F1’s governing body.

“Therefore, the FIA ​​launched an investigation to verify compliance with Article 17.3 of the Technical Regulations, and in particular the issue of ‘Reverse Engineering’ and possible illicit transfer of IP.

“Both teams fully collaborated with the FIA ​​in this investigation and provided all relevant information.

“The investigation, which involved CAD checks and a detailed analysis of the development process adopted by Aston Martin, confirmed that no wrongdoing had been committed and therefore the FIA ​​considers Aston Martin’s aerodynamic updates to be in compliance.”

The FIA ​​said article 17.3 “specifically defines and prohibits ‘reverse engineering’, i.e. the digital process of converting photographs (or other data) into CAD models, and prohibits the transfer of IP between teams, but equally, this article It allows car designs to be influenced by those of competitors, as has always been the case in Formula 1.”

“In the analysis we carried out, we confirmed that the processes followed by Aston Martin were consistent with the requirements of this article.”

Explaining the Aston Martin controversy

Sky Sports’ Ted Kravitz

“Many called it a Red Bull-like Aston Martin

“Red Bull was questioning because there was some movement of some people from Red Bull to Aston Martin over the winter and in recent months and there were some questions from Red Bull about whether those people had taken any data with them.

“Of course that would be breaking his contract with Red Bull leaving.

Aston Martin strongly denies this and say they have shared the details of their latest update with the FIA ​​and all their people.

“The FIA ​​has been to the Silverstone factory to view the data and all the processes used to create this new update package that looks like Red Bull and the FIA ​​has confirmed to Aston Martin, in writing, that their new update has generated as a result of the legitimate and independent work of Aston Martin themselves within the technical regulations”.

More to follow…