Lawrence Stroll appears to have made more friends up and down the paddock.
Two years after the Racing Point controversy, where the Silverstone based outfit RP20 bore a striking resemblence to the W10 from engine partner Mercedes, the team, now known as Aston Martin may have done it again.
Former head of areodynamics at Red Bull, Dan Fallows, recently joined Aston Martin as the teams new technical director. EF1 understands he took the position up in April after a settlement was reached between Red Bull and Aston Martin.
Red Bull head honco Christian Horner has asked the FIA to investigate the supposed copying of their car. When speaking to BBC Sport Horner commented “Copy is the biggest form of flattery”. Red Bull have been flying their wings at the front of the grid, whilst Aston Martin are languising at the back of the pack.
A spokesperson for Aston Martin said:
“We have shared details of our update with the FIA technical people.
“Having analysed the data and the processes used to create the update, the FIA has now confirmed in writing that our update was generated as a result of legitimate independent work in accordance with the technical regulations.”
The FIA said it had “carried out a routine pre-event legality check” of the Aston Martin, which focused “in particular [on] the topic of “reverse engineering” and potential illicit IP transfer”.