Christian Horner has slammed Aston Martin for their latest improvements, which he describes as a “clone” of the Red Bull’s RB18.
The AMR22 has a number of upgrades as part of a substantial improvement package for the Spanish Grand Prix, and some of them, particularly the sidepods and engine cover, have been compared to the RB18.
The FIA initiated an investigation after discovering features that resembled those of another rival during a regular pre-event review on the modifications. This verified that Aston Martin had committed no violation.
Before the investigation’s findings were released, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner expressed his displeasure with the resemblance between the two cars.
“It is quite a thing to instruct your team to come up with a very close-looking clone of our car,” Horner said in BBC 5 Live Sport’s Spanish Grand Prix preview podcast, as quoted by Andrew Benson on Twitter. “A few people have moved over the winter period, and what you can’t control is what they take in their heads.
“But what would be of grave concern to us would be if any IP had in any way changed hands.
“That is where we rely on the FIA to do their job. They have all the access and we will be relying on them heavily to ensure that no Red Bull IP has found its way into that car.”
On the other hand, Aston Martin has stated that their work has been verified to be in compliance with technical regulations.
“We have shared details of our update with the FIA technical people,” the team said.
“Having analysed the data and processes used, the FIA has confirmed in writing that our update was generated as a result of legitimate independent work in accordance with technical regulations.”
