Teams took to the track in Barcelona on Friday to start this weekendʻs Spanish Grand Prix. With the race back in Europe and close to teams close to their factories, upgrades came as one of the big stories. In fact, the upgrades for one team seemed so drastic that it appeared they debuted a new car.
Aston Martin took to the track with a car that seemed a copy of the Red Bull RB18. The resemblance seemed so uncanny that arguing that the Aston Martin was a product of their own making came as one of the narratives of the day. The FIA even offered up that the Aston had been investigated and that its development came without the assistance of current employees who had been with Red Bull last year.
One of the surprising comments came from Lance Stroll when he was interviewed by Sky Sports. Aside from looking uncomfortable answering questions about the car, and defending the team from any accusations of impropriety, Stroll stated that Aston had developed two cars for the 2022 season. He said that the first car, what might be called the A car, had not performed so it was time to bring out the B car.
The whole situation is fascinating. First, the heavy-handed defense of what looks like an RB18 replica came across as a ʻdoth protest too muchʻ moment. Other teams were sure to be curious and critical of Astonʻs latest iteration but unless someone had already filed paperwork suggesting corporate sabotage, there was no reason to push back so hard. Having Lance Stroll also made it awkward and someone from engineering should have been out in front of the mics.
Then there is the fact that Aston chose to move in a redundancy method. Rather than designers feeling secure with what they were doing, it appears that they allowed for a second team to develop their own interpretation of the 2022 car. This kind of thinking is, naturally, smart. Crafting a backup plan is never a bad idea, especially for something new being implemented with little testing. …
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