As TJ13 reported earlier, the FIA have investigated Aston Martin for ‘illegal copying’ the Red Bull car design. For now the F1 sport’s governing body has cleared the Silverstone based team from any rules breach, yet Red Bull are not convinced.

FIA: Have Aston copied the Red Bull car?

The Milton Keynes outfit released their own statement following that of the FIA’s. “Oracle Red Bull Racing have noted the FIA’s statement with interest.  While imitation is the greatest form of flattery, any replication of design would obviously need to comply with the FIA’s rules around ‘Reverse Engineering’.  However, should any transfer of IP have taken place that would clearly be a breach of regulations and would be a serious concern.”

RBR advisor Helmut Marko has revealed he believes documents related to the RB18 design have been “downloaded”. A very serious accusation.

This presumably refers to the personnel poached from Red Bull by Aston Martin over the winter. They would have had access to design documents for the RB18 during last year’s season.

“As things stand, copying isn’t forbidden,” Marko told Sky Sports Germany. “But you must also take into account that seven people were poached from us and that our chief aerodynamicist [Dan Fallows] joined Aston Martin with a disproportionately high fee.

“There are still some facts that we are checking. We will look into it in detail. There is evidence that data was downloaded.”

Dan Fallows joined Aston Martin after serving gardening leave following him handing in his notice last season.

“Dan Fallows was on gardening leave. What he has in his head?”, Marko questioned. “ Copying is not prohibited in the approach. But can you copy without documents and then make such a detailed copy of our car?”

Helmut Marko is making a not so veiled accusation that Aston Martin have stolen Red Bull intellectual property. If proven Aston Martin could be deducted points or even excluded from the 2022 title race.