Formula 1
The Formula 1 racing team Red Bull Racing has now rowed back towards Aston Martin after “Copygate” allegations. “The current state of affairs is that we can’t prove anything specifically and we’re not pursuing it because we don’t see Aston Martin as our direct competitor,” said Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Helmut Marko in a recent video interview with the specialist portal Motorsport-Total.com.
Ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix almost three weeks ago, there was a lot of excitement over the similarity of the renewed Aston Martin to the Red Bull factory cars. “We will look into the matter in detail,” Marko announced in Montmelo at the time and followed up: “There is evidence that data was downloaded.” The World Motor Sport Federation (FIA) then investigated whether Aston Martin copied aerodynamic parts illegally but concluded that was not the case.
Now Marko explained that Red Bull will not follow the matter “with great meticulousness”. “You shouldn’t do anything you can’t prove in black and white.” He only said that data had been downloaded. “But I didn’t say where they went,” emphasized the 79-year-old. The team would like “clarification from the FIA on how far you can go. Because we have a junior team, AlphaTauri, and if you interpret that consistently (…), AlphaTauri should be more similar, closer to Red Bull.”