APRIL 17, 2007

Red Bull worried about theft of designs

For some weeks Red Bull Racing has been looking at legal responses to the recent revelation that Spyker had acquired design documents from Milton Keynes. Spyker revealed the drawings as part of its case against Scuderia Toro Rosso, claiming that Red Bull and Toro Rosso parts are interchangeable.

Red Bull immediately launched an internal investigation in Milton Keynes and in Faenza to try to find out how these confidential documents got to Spyker. The obvious answer is that money changed hands because it is hard to understand what anyone at Red Bull had to gain from such an action. Having said that there might possibly be some disgruntled employees down in Faenza, where the design team has been decimated by the decision to design the cars in England.

There are a number of questions that arise from this: notably whether Red Bull could take legal action against Spyker, claiming that the team had received stolen goods. There is also a question of whether Spyker simply received the drawings in the mail (as is being put forward as an explanation) or whether the Silverstone team actively went in search of them. This question could probably be answered by an examination of phone and e-mail records of those involved although this would need the involvement of the police.

There is also the question of whether or not stolen documents would be admissable in the arbitration case between Spyker and Toro Rosso as many law courts refuse to accept evidence that is believed to have been acquired illegally.