Dan Fallows will join Aston Martin from Red Bull on April 2nd after the two teams reached a settlement over the aerodynamicist’s notice period.
Aston Martin announced the hiring of Red Bull’s chief engineer for aerodynamics, to be its new technical director, in June last year. However Red Bull insisted Fallows could not join his new team until their contract with him ended in mid-2023.The two teams have now reached an agreement which will see Fallows take up his new position at the Silverstone team in April, after the 2022 F1 season has begun.
“We would like to thank Dan for his many years of excellent service and wish him well for the future,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.
Group CEO of Aston Martin Performance Technologies Martin Whitmarsh said the team is “pleased to have reached an agreement with Red Bull which releases Dan early from his contract and are looking forward to him joining the team.”
Fallows was involved in a similar dispute when he left McLaren to join Red Bull in 2014. At Aston Martin he will be reunited with another Red Bull engineer recruited by the team, Andrew Alessi, who is their new head of technical operations.
“I’ve enjoyed many happy years at Red Bull Racing and am proud of what we achieved,” said Fallows. “I am looking forward to next season and a new challenge.”
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OOliver
18th January 2022, 18:20
You could be forgiven for thinking Withmarsh had been there all along.
Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
18th January 2022, 18:53
Wonder what the reasoning could be for Red Bull. I know Aston (aka Stroll) has deep pockets, but it’s not like Red Bull hasn’t with good ‘ol Mateschitz.
bosyber (@bosyber)
18th January 2022, 18:56
In the end I suspect it might not have been worth it to spend more on court cases, uncertain outcomes and it also doesn’t quite motivate your other staff I’d think (not like he’s going to come back at this moment any way right) @barryfromdownunder
ajaya
18th January 2022, 20:59
people with deep pockets run more cost analysis that we think. just because he has deep pockets does not mean they are willing to pay the lawyers..
cost benefit analysis trumps ego.. in most sensible billionaires!
MacLeod (@macleod)
19th January 2022, 8:04
If you have to compare I think the capital of Mateschitz is much greater but as @ajaya already said they don’t throw money away (certain on Lawyers) otherwise they were no Billionaires.
ppzzus (@ppzzus)
19th January 2022, 17:15
Generally speaking if you force an employee to stay they’ll deliver a sub par product. Red bull was likely stringing then along to get the maximum payout.
Neil
19th January 2022, 20:58
A lot of times these long term restriction of employment contracts are not worth the paper they are written on. It could have gone to court and they’d have found the terms too restrictive.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
18th January 2022, 22:23
Makes sense. He’s not going to be able to influence the 2022 car, and I suspect the likes of RBR would already have worked out that it will take at least another season or two for him to get across any possible innovations that might turn up on these new cars.
anon
19th January 2022, 8:34
@dbradock there is a lot of information that seems to have been omitted from this article, which seems in part to be pretty much just copying and pasting Red Bull’s statement into this article.
This article has left out the fact that, when Fallows originally accepted the offer from Aston Martin, his original proposed start date was the 1st January 2022. Red Bull demanded that he stuck to the terms of his original contract, which stated that he could not trigger the start of his notice period until the 31st December 2022, which would then require him to not work for another six months – that is where the mid-2023 timeframe comes from.
Red Bull then removed Fallows from Red Bull Technologies and insisted that he had to work in their road car division. Fallows objected to that change in employment and requested that Red Bull reversed the decision, which was refused. A month later, Fallows then handed in his resignation and left Red Bull with immediate effect, putting forward the argument that Red Bull’s actions constituted a form of constructive dismissal.
Red Bull then commenced legal action against Fallows on the grounds that they did not believe their actions constituted a form of constructive dismissal, and therefore sought to have an injunction imposed on Fallows to prevent him from joining Aston Martin for as long as possible (i.e. they were trying to enforce the original mid-2023 date).
What Red Bull have now agreed to is a settlement that means they will withdraw their lawsuit against Fallows – it doesn’t mean they’re happy that Fallows can go, it’s more that there were questions over whether the judge might rule that Red Bull’s contract terms were unreasonable and declined to enforce them, which could then weaken their hand in the future with regards to contractual disputes with their contract.
Sihrtogg (@sihrtogg)
19th January 2022, 12:41
^ Very insightful. COTD nominee IMHO.