Red Bull can try all they like to get under the skin of their new Aston Martin rivals – but Mike Krack is refusing to take the bait.
Much like last season, Red Bull are the team to beat this year and seem to already be on the path to the title after a storming victory in Bahrain. More surprising was that their closest challengers were not the usual suspects Ferrari and Mercedes, but an Aston Martin team on the rise.
Fernando Alonso finished third behind the two Red Bull drivers with Lance Stroll sixth despite racing with pins in his fractured wrist. They have both been given what looks to be a very competitive car this season, in the form of the AMR23.
It is the first car produced by the Silverstone team which has had significant input from technical director Dan Fallows. He was poached from Red Bull having worked in Milton Keynes for a long time, learning from one of the most renowned F1 car designers ever, Adrian Newey.
Aston Martin turned up mid-way through the 2022 season with a redesigned aero package which looked suspiciously similar to the Red Bull machine. While their latest creation has less of a visible resemblance to the RB19, major Red Bull figures have wasted no opportunity to crack a joke about it.
Team principal Christian Horner started it in the minutes after the race, as he told Sky Sports: "They say imitation is the biggest form of flattery and, you know, it's good to see the old car doing so well."
Driver Sergio Perez followed that up in the post-race press conference – he had team-mate Max Verstappen in stitches by telling reporters: "It's nice to see three Red Bull cars on the podium." Even Alonso couldn't resist chuckling at that one.
Long-time team adviser Helmut Marko appeared to accuse Aston Martin of foul play as he said: "Copying the focus is not prohibited, but can you copy in such detail without having documentation of our car? We had three Red Bulls on the podium, only the last one with a different engine."
But despite that willingness from the Red Bull camp to openly suggest that the Aston Martin car is heavily influenced by their own designs, the Silverstone team boss Krack does not want to get involved. When asked if he had a response, he simply told reporters: "We always decided we will not go into any war of words."
