After making their allegations against the Aston Martin F1 Team “personal”, Red Bull Racing have decided to drop the ‘green Red Bull’ saga with no “concrete” evidence available.
Aston Martin shocked the Formula 1 paddock at the Spanish Grand Prix, after revealing some distinctive upgrades to their AMR22 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
However, they were distinctive for all the wrong reasons, after striking rather similar to Red Bull’s RB18.
Aston Martin’s new sidepods caused most of the anger, resulting in the British team’s B-spec car being dubbed the ‘green Red Bull’.
Red Bull bosses were furious, insisting that they themselves would carry out a full internal investigation.
Claims were made that former Red Bull members had taken data with them whilst moving to Aston Martin, with Dan Fallows in particular being mentioned by name.
READ: Russell makes admission about debut season with Mercedes after outperforming Hamilton
This highly disappointed four-time World Champion and former Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel, who was unhappy that the comments had become “personal”, with Fallows being a “very good guy” according to the current Aston Martin driver.
Aston Martin responded to the claims, by insisting that they had designed a B-spec car over the winter.
This led to some teams questioning how they could afford such a thing, however, the FIA cleared the famous green team of any wrongdoing.
As a result, Dr Helmut Marko has said they will drop their allegations, with nothing available in “black and white”.
“The state of play is that we can’t prove anything concrete,” said Red Bull’s senior advisor.
“We’re not pursuing this because we don’t see Aston Martin as a direct competitor.
“What you can’t prove in black and white, you should leave alone.”
The 79-year-old was one of the Red Bull members who suggested that Aston Martin had stolen data from the Austrian team, leaving Marko wanting “clarity” from the FIA over the matter.
READ: Lewis Hamilton admits he wants to race for Ferrari
“I said data had been downloaded,” admitted Marko.
“I didn’t say where it was going. But we would like clarity from the FIA on how far you can go.
“We have a sister team, AlphaTauri, and if you interpret what has happened consistently, the AlphaTauri should look more like the Red Bull,” the Austrian concluded.
It’s not the first-time that Aston Martin have been accused of copying another team, with the British side being dubbed the ‘pink Mercedes’ a few years ago, whilst running under the Racing Point name.