BARCELONA, Spain – Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, has announced that Aston Martin’s facelift is legal after it opened an investigation into apparent similarities between the AMR22 and RB18 cars. by Red Bull.
Aston Martin was among the teams that brought important updates to the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend and its new package includes revised sidepods and a new engine cover. The new design looks similar to that of Red Bull and comes after two senior aerodynamicists Dan Fallows and Andrew Alessi left Red Bull to join Aston Martin late last year.
Formula One recently banned teams from directly copying competitors’ designs after Racing Point, which will become Aston Martin in 2021, used a photo-processing process to copy the design of a 2019 Mercedes.
In a statement ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix at the weekend, the FIA said it had opened an investigation into the revised Aston Martin design and found that it was not a case of “reverse engineering” either. result of the illegal assignment of intellectual property (IP) rights. .
“The FIA has conducted regular pre-event legitimacy checks on the Aston Martin team’s plan to upgrade the aerodynamics for the 2022 FIA Formula One Spanish Grand Prix,” the statement said.
“During this process, it became clear that some features on Aston Martin resembled some other competitors. As a result, the FIA opened an investigation to check compliance with Article 17.3 of the Technical Regulations, and especially the topic “Reverse Engineering” and the possibility of illegal transfer of ownership.
“Both teams have fully cooperated with the FIA on this investigation and provided all relevant information. The investigation, including CAD inspection and detailed analysis of the development process, was conducted by Aston Martin. passed, confirming that no wrongdoing had been committed, and therefore that the FIA considers Aston Martin’s aerodynamic upgrades to be appropriate.
“Article 17.3 specifically defines and prohibits ‘Reverse Engineering’, i.e. the process of digitally converting an image (or other data) to a CAD model, and prohibits the transfer of intellectual property rights between teams, but equally, This allows car designs to be influenced by competitors’ designs, as has always happened in Formula 1. During the analysis we performed, we determined acknowledges that the procedures performed by Aston Martin are in accordance with the requirements of these Terms.”
Red Bull, whose engineers poked fun at the situation by sitting on the edge of a pit during their first practice session drinking a can of Red Bull Green Edition, released its own statement on Friday.
“Oracle Red Bull Racing has taken note of the FIA’s statement with concern,” the team’s statement said.
“While imitation is the ultimate form of flattery, any design reproduction will obviously need to comply with the FIA’s rules for ‘Reverse Engineering’.”
“However, should any transfer of intellectual property rights take place it would clearly be a regulatory violation and would be a serious concern.”
The Aston Martin update has been applied to both cars in Spain, with the team’s mechanics breaking the F1 car park curfew to get the job done before Friday’s training sessions. Lance Stroll finished FP1 in 12th place while Sebastian Vettel was in 16th.
