Former Force India and Racing Point team boss Otmar Szafnaur considered that for the AMR22 to be a copy of the RB18, this process would have to start long before the Red Bull car was presented to the public. Alpine's boss mocked the fact that Lawrence Stroll's team hired 14 employees from the energy team
Former Force India and Racing Point boss Otmar Szafnauer also gave his opinion on the controversy involving the alleged copy made by Aston Martin to the Red Bull car. In the view of the now manager of Alpine, for this copying to have happened, the reproduction process must have started even before the RB18 was presented to the public last February.
Szafnauer arrived at Alpine this season after a long stay at Aston Martin, still in the period when the team now owned by Lawrence Stroll was called Force India and Racing Point. His departure from the team, however, is related to the hiring of Martin Whitmarsh, who took over the engineering division of the brand.
This weekend, Aston Martin is under the spotlight, as the AMR22's package of updates have left the car looking a lot like the RB18. The FIA (International Automobile Federation) did an analysis and concluded that it is not a case of reverse engineering, when a team uses photographs to reproduce a rival's development, and validated the car of Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll.
The energy team, however, has not lowered its artillery. Red Bull fears that the design has leaked from the factory and says it even has evidence of downloads. In addition, Christian Horner's team is using the argument that Aston Martin has hired several Red Bull employees for this year, which adds even more fuel to the fire.
While the energy squad promises to do a detailed investigation, Aston Martin criticizes the accusations and relies on the FIA, claiming that it developed two designs for 2022 but chose the wrong path. Seeing that the RB18 worked, it then decided to adopt the course it had initially ruled out at the factory.
In Szafnauer's view, it also does not pass unnoticed that Aston Martin has hired several employees from Red Bull. Roman did not want to speak clearly about copying, but made it clear that if this was the case, it was not a process that began after the presentation of the car.
"It makes no sense to copy who is last, you copy who is in front," Szafnauer said in an interview with Spanish newspaper AS. "But you have to remember that Aston Martin hired 14 people from Red Bull in aerodynamics and other areas. Guess what they are going to do?" he followed.
"I don't know if it's an actual copy, but I think this had to start before Red Bull was shown to the public in February. This comes from before photographs existed," he added.
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