Aston Martin became the talk of the paddock on Thursday when they unveiled their speculated B-spec version of the AMR22. The accusation was that the new AMR22 looked quite a bit like the Red Bull RB18. However, the FIA has now cleared Aston Martin of any copying. 

AMR22B is not a copy of Red Bull RB18

The original AMR22 has not been able to produce the results that the team would have liked to have. The porpoising very much created a problem for the team as they had to raise the car’s height. This affected the car’s performance and lost them a chunk of lap time. However, the Silverstone-based outfit now believes that this B spec version can deal with this problem very well. 

According to the FIA, there hasn’t been any case of copying as the car was already in the wind tunnel in November. An engineer quoted to AMuS about the car, “We were able to show the FIA ​​CAD data and photos from our wind tunnel model last autumn and prove that we didn’t copy anything.”

Chief Technical Officer of Aston Martin, Andy Green, explained how the new car was built to accommodate different configurations. 

“The chassis had to be built to accommodate two different cooling systems. If we hadn’t done that, it would have been impossible to switch to the new sidepod geometry.”

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According to AMuS, the new car was supposed to make its debut in Silverstone in England. But the results of the first few races prompted Aston Martin to introduce it in Barcelona. 

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In 2020, Aston Martin (known as Racing Point) had gotten itself into trouble as their RP20 was very similar to the Mercedes W10. But Green maintains that it’s different this time around. 

“The nose, the front and rear wings and the suspension are completely different from the Red Bull. That’s why you can’t speak of a copy. The ramp shape of the sidepods is not only seen in the Red Bull, but also in other cars.”

The appointment of a few ex-Red Bull engineers could have helped Aston Martin. Dan Fallows, former Head of Aerodynamics with Red Bull had switched. This aroused suspicion in the Red Bull camp that whether the old employees had taken more than knowledge during the switch.

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Helmut Marko in an interview with Sky Germany claimed that evidence was available that data had been downloaded. 

Red Bull too released a statement regarding the infringement. The statement ended with, “However, should any transfer of IP have taken place that would clearly be a breach of regulations and would be a serious concern.”

Aston Martin claims that the new car is better. This weekend in Barcelona will be a true litmus test of how good the new car actually is.