Aston Martin AMR22 update in the pipeline ‘long before any cars were public’

Mike Krack says Aston Martin decided “long before any cars were public” to go down the route that so happens to be the same as Red Bull’s with the design of their 2022 car.

Putting a ‘green Red Bull’, as it has been dubbed, onto the track in Spain, Aston Martin raised eyebrows in the paddock and with the FIA.

Said to have been “alarmed” by Aston Martin’s upgrades for the Spanish Grand Prix, the FIA investigated but cleared the team of any wrongdoing.

A spokesperson for the team told PlanetF1 that the FIA had “confirmed in writing that our update was generated as a result of legitimate independent work in accordance with the Technical Regulations”.

But even if with the FIA’s investigation, there are still questions about whether Aston Martin drew inspiration from the Red Bull’s design.

Team boss Krack says no, they started on this path before even seeing the RB18 for the first time in pre-season testing.

“We actually decided on different directions relatively early on – last year,” he told Sky Germany

“Our chassis is designed to be relatively flexible, so we can change the direction we’ve taken.

“We launched different programs and then decided at some point that we had to go in a different direction. But that was long before any cars were public.”

El Aston Martin con las novedades

The Upgraded Aston Martin pic.twitter.com/ln3qcf34SJ

— Albert Fabrega (@AlbertFabrega) May 19, 2022

The new-look Aston Martin features a revised floor, sidepod inlets, engine cover, cooling louvres, rear wing and they’ve even made changes to the Halo.

Krack called the upgrade a “normal development process” with Aston Martin’s initial design struggling with porpoising and struggling to score points.

Speaking to Sky F1, Krack added: “You will remember when we had the launch of the car, [we were] already mentioning that we had built in some flexibility in the car, to be able to develop along the journey, and this is what we have…