Christian Horner speaks out on impact of Dan Fallows’ Red Bull exit

Although Red Bull fought hard when Aston Martin announced they’d signed Dan Fallows, Christian Horner says his departure paved the way for other Red Bull aerodynamicists to get an opportunity.

Aston Martin announced in 2021 they’d signed Fallows from his role as Red Bull’s head of aerodynamics to be their new technical director.

But with Red Bull insisting Fallows would have to see out his contract, which ran until 2023, the matter turned into a legal wrangle over the Briton’s services with an undisclosed resolution permitting the Briton to join his new team in April last year.

Shortly after his arrival, Aston Martin debuted a ‘green Red Bull’ at the Spanish Grand Prix with Red Bull questioning whether their IP had followed him over to Silverstone. The FIA cleared Aston Martin, declaring all the IP related to the car was theirs with team saying they’d already begun working on the concept back in 2021.

That, though, wasn’t the end of the digs with Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko declaring “three Red Bulls” were on the podium at this season’s Bahrain Grand Prix when Fernando Alonso joined Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in the top-three while Horner said it was nice to see the “old” car doing so well.

But while the digs came hard and fast, Horner acknowledges there is one up side to Fallows’ departure.

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Speaking about the aerodynamicist’s exit, he told Sky Sports: “In the UK you’ve got seven teams within probably a 50-mile radius, so inevitably there’s going to be competition.

“We’ve had a very low turnover of staff in our history at Red Bull, and it’s great that we’ve given talent a chance to develop and achieve great things.

“When they go to other teams, I’m pleased for Dan that he’s doing a good job, but his departure has given other engineers an opportunity and everything is about evolution. The team we have now is even stronger than the one we had two years ago.

“We’re always looking inwardly and looking ahead.”

Fallows played an integral role in last year’s RB18 with this year’s car an evolution and one, like its predecessor, that could be racing towards another championship double.

A design team led by Adrian Newey, and potentially so for years to come

Red Bull’s design team is led by Adrian Newey, the man widely regarded as the best Formula One designer of all time.

He’s designed championship-winning cars for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull with all six of the Milton Keynes team’s title-winning cars coming from his drawing board.

The main said to “see air”, Horner recently issued a hands off warning to Red Bull’s rivals as he made it clear that Newey will continue with Red Bull for many years to come.

“There’s always going to be rumours in this paddock, that’s Formula 1,” Horner said. “He’s such an important part of our team and popular part of our team.

“It’s great to have him with us for the long term, but also to be involved in some of the things we’re now getting involved in.”

Pierre Wache is Red Bull’s technical director while Ben Waterhouse is the head of performance engineering.