"His head cannot be erased" - Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko raises suspicions over Aston Martin's 2023 F1 car

Red Bull's team advisor Helmut Marko has accused Aston Martin of copying design ideas from the RB19 after their astounding performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix last weekend. He partly blamed former Red Bull Head of Aerodynamics Dan Fallows for the same.

Aston Martin had a striking performance during the Bahrain Grand Prix. The race also marked Fernando Alonso's debut with the team and he was able to pull the car to the podium after easily overtaking Mercedes and Ferrari.

The top three consisted of both the Red Bulls and one Aston Martin. While many have appreciated their progress, Marko feels that the team has stolen their idea given they have Fallows, who earlier worked with RB, as their technical director. He feels that Fallows still has some idea of how RB developed their car, and hence, the AMR23 is their ripoff.

PlanetF1.com quoted him:

"It’s true that what Fallows had in his head cannot be erased. Copying the focus is not prohibited, but can you copy in such detail without having documentation of our car?"

He famously also added that there were three RB cars on the podium and not two, referring to the AMR23 being Red Bull's copy.

"We had three Red Bulls on the podium, only the last one with a different engine."

Similar issues with both teams emerged in the past season as well. However, Aston Martin defended themselves by saying that the car's idea was developed way back in 2021.

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Red Bull advisor impressed with Alonso's performance in Bahrain despite the suspicions at the team

Fernando Alonso was phenomenal throughout the first race weekend and in the race as well. Despite being tagged from behind at the very start of the race, the Spaniard was able to catch up with both the Mercedes' and a Ferrari to take his place on the podium.

Along with him, his teammate Lance Stroll managed to finish P6. Despite the suspicions at Aston Martin, Helmut Marko praised Alonso's stunning performance. He said:

"I said it before the race: Alonso will be third. His fight with Hamilton was incredible. It was a tough duel, but fair. Really old school. If Fernando had started further up, he would surely have been a threat to us."

After the first race of the season, there was a lot of positive feedback for Aston Martin, who made an incredible comeback at the very start of the season. While they still probably won't fight for a world championship, Alonso or Stroll could achieve a couple of wins.