Despite a strong resemblance to Red Bull, the Aston Martin deemed compliant by the FIA

We expected to discover a whole new Aston Martin in Catalonia, but certainly not that it looks like two drops of water to the RB18 of Red Bull. At the start of the season, drivers and team bosses anticipated a lot of convergence regarding concepts as the year progressed. Here we are. Presented in the pit lane at the same time as the other single-seaters as has been the tradition since the Bahrain Grand Prix, the AMR22 really looks a lot like the RB18, which happens to be the most efficient car currently. The similarities mainly concern the triple rail pontoons, dear to Adrian Newey since the start of the year.

On the Red Bull side, we are obviously furious. In absolute terms, it is not illegal to copy the competition's parts, as long as the process is based on photos and not on sourcing plans. As a reminder, Aston Martin has recruited a lot in recent months, particularly from Red Bull, starting with the imminent Dan Fallows, who was chief aerodynamicist at Milton Keynes and who is now Aston Martin's technical director. Is there a cause and effect link? Hard to say. 

The AMR22 in the Barcelona pit lane. © Jérémy Satis/AUTOhebdo

Still, according to the information we have, the FIA ​​has considered that the AMR22 is legal. The FIA ​​in fact carried out a legality check on the car to ensure that there was no plagiarism. “Both teams collaborated perfectly with the FIA ​​in this investigation and provided all relevant information. The investigation, which included CAD (computer-aided design) checks and a detailed analysis of the development process adopted by Aston Martin, confirmed that no wrongdoing had been committed. In addition to the visible part represented by the pontoons, Aston Martin has also made major changes to its floor and its rear wing. 

As for the drivers, they are quite far from all these considerations and simply hope to fight for something other than a 10th place. “I don’t really have any expectations, has explained Sebastian Vettel at a press conference. We know the car is very different, we have made a big effort at the factory to make the parts for both cars. It will be very interesting to see how they behave on the slopes. We are obviously very curious to see the performance that this will bring us. We don't expect this to make us take an instant leap forward. But we believe a lot in this concept and in the fact that it can bring us more performance in the future. It will be interesting to have answers to these questions.” 

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