Aston Martin unveiled updates for its AMR22 car in the opening practice for the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday. Red Bull pointed out that the features were similar to their RB18 concept. 

The Martin was then dubbed as a ‘Green Red Bull’. 

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As per Red Bull, several of their employees switched to Aston Martin in recent months and passed on intellectual property data. 

FIA, the sport’s governing body, revealed that it investigated Red Bull’s allegations and found Aston Martin’s updates were legal and complying with the regulations. It said that during a “routine pre-event legality check” of the planned Aston Martin updates, “it became apparent that a number of features on the Aston Martin resembled those of another Competitor”.

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The governing body further concluded that the car complied to Article 17.3 of the technical regulations, relating to reverse engineering and potential illicit IP transfer.

“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 that the Aston Martin aerodynamic upgrades are compliant,” the FIA said. 

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What does the Article 17.3 say?

“Article 17.3 specifically defines and prohibits Reverse Engineering, i.e. the digital process of converting photographs (or other data) to CAD models, and prohibits IP transfer between teams, but equally, this Article permits car designs getting influenced by those of competitors, as has always been the case in Formula 1.”

Red Bull immediately took a dig at Aston Martin. The staff members on Friday say with summer edition of their energy drink – kiwi and apple flavours. 

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 “We have shared details of our update with the FIA technical people. Having analysed the data and the processes used to create the update, the FIA has now confirmed in writing that our update was generated as a result of legitimate independent work in accordance with the technical regulations,” a spokesperson from Aston Martin said. 

Red Bull said that it had “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,” the Formula 1 giant said. 

Reverse engineering had come in the spot light in 2020 after Aston Martin’s predecessor, Racing Point, had based its car design on the 2019 Mercedes title winner model.