Aston Martin accused of mimicking Red Bull’s automobile design

Aston Martin has been accused of imitating Red Bull’s automobile, and the company has questioned whether any of its intellectual property has been taken.

For this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, Aston Martin has made a significant improvement to their car, which bears a remarkable resemblance to Red Bull’s design.

Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner expressed “great worry” over the possibility that their intellectual property had been misused.

The FIA had certified it was “valid independent work,” according to Aston Martin.

Horner’s comments came before the FIA issued a statement clearing Aston Martin, stating that “no crime had been committed,” and that “the FIA deems the Aston Martin aerodynamic improvements to be compliant.”

However, a Red Bull statement released following the FIA’s reaction made it apparent that the subject was far from done.

“We noticed the FIA’s statement with interest,” it said, adding, “Should any transfer of IP have occurred, that would clearly be a violation of regulations.”

Aston Martin has been suffering near the end of the field so far this season, while Red Bull is battling Ferrari for the world championship.

With dramatically undercut sidepods and a stepped, ramp appearance on the upper bodywork, the modified Aston Martin looks quite similar to the Red Bull.

Horner, who has had that design on his car since the second pre-season test in early March, expressed anxiety since Aston Martin had just poached a number of Red Bull employees.

Dan Fallows, the former head of aerodynamics at Red Bull, was hired as Aston Martin’s new technical director last year but only started in April when the teams reached an agreement.

“The greatest form of flattery is copying,” Horner stated.

“It’s a big deal to tell your crew to make a very close-looking clone of our car, and of course, a few people have relocated over the winter, and what you can’t control is what they think about it.”

“However, if any IP had changed hands in any way, it would be of significant concern to us.”

“That is where we rely on the FIA to perform their job; they study, they have all the information, and we will strongly rely on them to verify that no Red Bull IP has made its way into the car.”

“We have communicated information of our upgrade with the FIA technical people,” an Aston Martin representative said.

“FIA has now acknowledged in writing that our update was developed as a result of valid independent work in compliance with technical regulations after analyzing the data and processes utilized to make it.”

Before the Spanish race weekend, the FIA said it had “carried out a regular pre-event legality assessment” on the Aston Martin, focusing on “in particular the problem of ‘reverse engineering’ and suspected illicit IP transfer.”

The investigation “proved that no violation had been committed, and consequently the FIA deems that the Aston Martin aerodynamic improvements are compliant” with the regulations, according to the statement.

FIA stated that the modification was “compliant with” the rules prohibiting team IP transfers.

It’s not the first time Aston Martin has sparked outrage by allegedly imitating a competitor’s vehicle.

They were accused of manufacturing a copy of the 2019 Mercedes in 2020 when they were competing as Racing Point.

FIA initially approved the design, but after complaints from rival teams, Racing Point was penalized 15 points and fined 400,000 euros for breaching the rules and illegally imitating Mercedes’ brake ducts.