Aston Martin chief: 'Copying Red Bull or Mercedes won't help us'

Dan Fallows decided to leave Red Bull Racing last year and switch to Aston Martin. With that team, the aerodynamic chief has been with the team since April this year and hopes to become as competitive as he was with his old employer. It will not be an easy task, but Fallows is confident that Aston Martin can grow to that level.

Fallows was only allowed to start at Aston Martin from April because Red Bull blocked an earlier transfer of the British engineer. Eventually, the matter even went to court and both teams agreed to 1 April 2022 as the effective date of the contract. So last winter, Fallows was also not involved in the development of the AMR22.

Aston Martin develops

During the season, Fallows gained the lead on aerodynamics. As early as the Spanish Grand Prix, the team came up with a whole new concept. That car was also dubbed the 'green RB18' due to the fact that the new car bore many similarities to that of Red Bull. A minor riot ensued, but it eventually turned out that it was a coincidence and that Fallows had not brought any sensitive information with him from his time at Red Bull.

In recent months, Aston Martin has been in pretty good shape. So Fallows' arrival seems to have paid off and owner Lawrence Stroll's team hopes to take the next step in 2023.

Red Bull not copying

In Formula 1, you often see midfield teams copying successful concepts of the top teams. At Aston Martin, they hold a different philosophy. "The important thing for us is to make sure that we don’t just replicate what our competitors are doing. We don’t believe that’s going to help us overtake the likes of Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari. So we have to develop our own way of doing things and that does take time." Fallows told PlanetF1 and others .

The 49-year-old Briton believes all the ingredients are in place at Aston Martin to compete for world championships: an ambitious group of employees, a new factory, a good vision and plenty of motivation and belief.