Sebastian Vettel has come to the defence of Aston Martin’s technical director Dan Fallows in reaction to questions raised over the design of the team’s car.
Aston Martin introduced an upgrade for its AMR22 at last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix which drew the attention of the FIA for its outward similarity to Red Bull’s RB18. The sport’s governing body examined the work Aston Martin had done to produce the design and concluded it was their original work.
Red Bull raised concerns over how their rivals had managed to produce a car which resembled theirs so closely. Team principal Christian Horner said they would begin an internal investigation to ensure none of their intellectual property could have been leaked.
“What isn’t fair and what is totally unacceptable, which we wouldn’t accept, is if there has been any transfer of IP [intellectual property] at all,” Horner said last weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix, when the upgrades were first introduced.
Aston Martin has hired a number of staff from Red Bull over the past year, including Fallows, previously head of aerodynamics at the Milton Keynes-based team. He arrived in the last month, but Aston Martin stated that work began on the Catalunya upgrade during 2021.
Horner raised concerns over the possibility information could have gone with a former team member to Aston Martin.
“What is permissible, and we see it up and down the paddock, individuals move from team to team after a garden leave period, what they take in their head, that’s fair game,” he said. “That’s their knowledge.
“What isn’t fair and what is totally unacceptable, which we wouldn’t accept, is if there has been any transfer of IP at all.”
Vettel said insinuations which had been made about the team’s design were “not fair, especially towards first of all the effort that went in.
“Second, I think on a personal level to Dan Fallows – I don’t think it was fair. Some things that were said I think were not right,”…