Red Bull in court after all: legal battle with head of aerodynamics

There was no lawsuit filed by Mercedes to challenge Max Verstappen's world title. Yet Red Bull Racing found themselves in a court of law last month. Just five days after the championship, the legal battle with Dan Fallows, head of aerodynamics at Red Bull, began.

Fallows announced last June that he wants to work for Aston Martin from January 1, 2022. At this team he can become the technical director. Red Bull took him to court because Fallows didn't live up to his contractual agreements and resigned. Verstappen's team admits that Fallows has a six-month notice period, but that this can be activated from December 31st 2022. In that case, Fallows cannot start at Aston Martin until July 1, 2023 at the earliest.

Fallows hoped that Red Bull and he could come to an agreement, but Red Bull didn't want that. The team believes that Fallows has a lot of information about the new Red Bull car and they don't want this information to end up at Aston Martin. After the head of aerodynamics announced his departure, Red Bull took him away from all work on the Formula 1 team. He was to go and work on the development of a Red Bull road car.

Less than two months later, Fallows submitted his own letter of resignation and wanted to quit Red Bull immediately. He stated that he felt badly treated (because he had been transferred). Furthermore, Fallows thought that with this resignation, the notice period would start from that moment and not from 31 December 2022. He also gave examples of other ex-Red Bull employees who were allowed to leave the team before their notice period. However, Red Bull did not agree and refused his resignation, MotorsportWeek.com writes.

The two parties then went to court. Red Bull wants to prevent Fallows from leaving prematurely and going to competitor Aston Martin, while the Briton himself wants to switch as soon as possible. The first hearing took place in December. It turned out in favour of Red Bull. At the end of January the judge will make a final decision in this case.