Aston Martin acknowledges Red Bull was an ‘inspiration’ for their car with the newest upgrades

Aston Martin acknowledges Red Bull was an ‘inspiration’ for their car with the newest upgrades

Aston Martin's AMR-22

The completely revitalised car debuted by Aston Martin last weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix was charged of being a replica of Red Bull Racing’s RB18, as the upgrades possess a passing similarity to the defending champion’s car. Aston Martin upheld itself by claiming that it created this idea before seeing Red Bull’s new car in February. The most noteworthy element of that statement is that the Silverstone-based team seemed unworried about how Red Bull had come up with the exact same idea.

Aston Martin technical director Andrew Green does not refuse to acknowledge that Red Bull’s RB18 inspired the new AMR22, but he emphasises that this did occur only after the Milton Keynes-based team revealed its car for 2022. But what the team saw from the RB18’s official launch coincided with Aston Martin’s already established ‘alternate solution’ design.

YouTube video

FS Video

Furthermore, he claims that Red Bull only influenced the aerodynamic surface areas around the side pods because they resemble a premise that Aston Martin would have crop up with on its own last year before rejecting it. He tries to explain that by August, the two designs had been operating for “seven or eight months.” According to Green, one theory did not appear to be producing much downward force, so the team chose the other idea, despite the fact that the other attributes of that car appeared to fall just short.

Also Read: Red Bull “not satisfied” with FIA clearing Aston Martin’s ‘copied’ upgrades

Aston Martin’s workings behind developing two cars

Red Bull Racing's RB18
Red Bull Racing’s RB18

“We got greedy and we chose the car that generated a lot of downforce, thinking we would improve the characteristics later,” said Green. He says that both cars were developed up to a certain level and then continued with the A car, but in the meantime that concept has therefore been pushed aside and the team has continued with the B car. According to Green, Aston Martin suspected it had made a terrible mistake well before the unveiling of its car, and those fears would have been magnified when Red Bull first popped up with its design concept during the winter test in Spain.

Green claims that Aston Martin intended to alter its car construct early on in the season. “What we did was make sure that the chassis could handle the two concepts,” added Green. The chassis would have been built to accommodate both the old and new cooling systems. “So on the chassis, there were no additional costs,” concluded the technical director in charge of Aston Martin.

The conundrum of how two constructs can be developed simultaneously remains unanswered, but Green confirms that the expenses have been considered. “We made sure that we reached the minimum amount needed to get us to race five,” stated Green. Following that, the A design would have been abandoned.

Also Read: Lance Stroll on the Aston Martin upgrade: “Would have been faster if it was a copy”

Also Read: Aston Martin counter Red Bull’s stealing claims: “Don’t know what these accusations are”