Racing fans have been buzzing with excitement over Aston Martin’s impressive performances at the start of the 2023 FORMULA 1 season, however, rumors have been swirling that the secret to Aston Martin’s success lies in a “copy” of Red Bull’s car for the 2023 season.

But team engineering boss Luca Furbatto is quick to dismiss the allegations, insisting that their car is not a mere replica of their rival’s design…

“In reality, a copy is not possible because the two cars have two fundamentally different architectures,” Furbatto told the Spanish daily Marca.

“We are using a power unit, gearbox and rear suspension from Mercedes.”

Indeed, Aston Martin poached Mercedes’ top aerodynamicist Eric Blandin, while new technical director Dan Fallows came from Red Bull.

“It’s fair to say that Dan and Eric have brought a different approach to our aerodynamics and that, in terms of laptime, was probably an important step,” Furbatto – who was Alfa Romeo’s chief designer until last year – added.

“But if you look at last season, or the second half of last season, we had already achieved significant advances,” he continued.

“We changed the aerodynamic concept in the sixth race last year and in February we started to launch some of the first parts before the Red Bull was launched,” Furbatto insisted.

“We identified that we had indeed gone in the wrong direction from an aerodynamic point of view so we made a number of mechanical and aerodynamic improvements within the season and the car just got better and better.

“In the second part of the year we were probably fifth fastest and constantly in the points.”