The chiefs of Aston Martin and Red Bull along with AlphaTauri discuss about the copy row which was revealed during F1 Spanish GP weekend.
Following on from the fallout over Aston Martin “copying” the Red Bull and the former getting away with or being let off, a number of focal personnel of the teams ; Andrew Green, Pierre Wache and to a lesser extent Jody Egginton of Alpha Tauri talk about the whole matter.
This row kicked-off ahead of the Spanish GP when Aston Martin presented a spec B car at Barcelona which resembled the current Red Bull. Knowing that few personnel switched to the Silverstone-based team, the Milton Keynes outfit put in an inquiry.
The FIA looked at the matter and went through the design process of Aston Martin and cleared them of using the IP of Red Bull. The former noted that they had already thought of having two types of design ahead of the 2022 F1 season, so there was no chance of copying.
Here’s the topic dealt by the personnel of Aston Martin, Red Bull and even AlphaTauri:
New package and accusations –
Green: “Yeah, I don’t know what these accusations are that Red Bull are flinging about. All I can say is that at no stage did we ever receive any data from any team, from anyone. The FIA came in and did a thorough investigation, examined all the data leading up, in the history of this car, they interviewed all the people involved and concluded that it was completely independent development. And to that point, where you’re talking about potential in employees, this car was conceived in the middle of last year, as a dual route with the launch car and the majority of the releases were made before anybody from Red Bull even turned up. So I think the accusations are very wide at the mark.”
His opinion –
Green: “Yeah. Disappointed, especially with the fact that the FIA have made a statement with respect to the car. And like I said before, they’ve come in and they’ve looked, and they’ve declared that it’s legitimate, independent work. And I think they’re the ones who see all the data, not just from us, but from all the teams. So they’re really are the only ones who can make the judgement and by regulation they are obliged to make judgments on this. And they have, and I think, for me, that’s, that’s the end of it.”
Case closed or more checks –
Green: “We expect it to be the end. But we if the FIA want to come back in again and do further investigations, we’re more than happy for them to do so. We’ve been completely open and honest with them through the whole process. We’ve given them every access that they’ve requested. So if they want to come back and do some more than that, I’m more than happy for that to happen.”
Deja vu after Mercedes copy row –
Green: “I think that they’re completely false. I mean, if you look at the development of the car that is sitting out there right now, you’ll see that this has all happened towards the end of last year. Before we’d seen anybody, you know, we were on a dual path. And, you know, it came as a shock, but also, a surprise that Red Bull came out with a similar concept, as well. But I think that just reinforced our feeling at the time that of the two paths that that we had open to us, we’d gone the wrong way. And I think that was that was confirmation of that.”
Initial reaction of Red Bull –
Wache: “I was surprised, quite surprised to see a copy. After, quite satisfied that they copy us to be honest, it means we didn’t do a so bad job. Sorry. I think for us the main aspect was to be sure that it was done in the rules. FIA check and it looks like. We have on our side now to check if we didn’t have any IP leak, that is a main asset of the team. We want to be make sure of that, that is what we are investigating at the moment. But as a personal and engineering aspect, it was quite satisfying that some other team copy us, it means our concept is not so bad.”
What they asked with FIA –
Wache: “Oh, we were not asked, I think. We were not aware, we discover the car as you. I think it was coming from you, to be honest, in the public domain, then we discover the car. I am not sure that we make a massive voice about it. It’s just we want to be sure we protect ourselves and as we just mentioned before on the budget cap, you know, the main aspect of the budget is our IP, that we want to make sure that how we spend our money is secure and our asset is secure.”
Link with engineers joining Aston Martin from Red Bull –
Wache: “We cannot control the heads of the people. It’s part of our industry that we have transfer of people in engineering It’s like a football team, you know, the football players are the engineers in this business. I think it is not what we are after, it’s more if we have some electronic file or file leak in the system, but we cannot control what the people know and what the people transfer with what they know. You cannot ‘unknow’ something. That is not something we are after.”
What can be done now –
Wache: “No, we have action internally, for sure. I think we are open minded ourself in terms of IP, to be sure that you have no leak apparent to our system. But it could happen to another team to be honest, not only to Aston Martin. It’s being diligent, we have to do ourselves. In terms of action with the FIA, I think the responses from the FIA are clear, and looks like the car itself and the way to achieve it was legal, then we don’t do any more action on this aspect until we find something on our side. I think we will not lobby FIA. We will for sure inform the FIA that in the rules it’s clear that IP transfer could not happen. It has happened in the past and it was clear. I think clearly is the FIA will be part of the process if we find something for sure.”
Egginton: “From our side, when I sort of echo what Pierre has said, they’re really… the FIA have done their investigation, they’re satisfied. As we move into the business end of this weekend and then out the other side of the race, it could possibly be a discussion point. But obviously at the moment we’re focused on ourselves, trying to get the best out of the car, collect points, and then we’ll see beyond that, but it’s not at the forefront of my mind at the moment. We’ve got other things to focus on to be honest.”
Here’s the initial FIA reaction on Aston Martin and Red Bull
Here’s Aston Martin on Sebastian Vettel’s theft
Here’s Christian Horner on team orders
Here’s Ferrari and Red Bull duo on their problems