Formula 1, which this Sunday is experiencing a new date with the Canadian Grand Prix, is by far one of the sporting activities whose technological development is leading the way. Innovations set the tone each year and this affects the results as much as the way each driver handles their car, as has been seen throughout the history of the category.
For this reason, it is easy to assume that all these advances are creating a series of pieces and elements that could be protected through the registration of the corresponding patents. Of course, although more developments emerge year after year, this is not common to happen..
One of the reasons that explains this situation is that if a certain team protected its findings through this system, its rivals would have the possibility of requesting its exclusion from the technology to the International Automobile Federation (FIA), so that The organization will exclude the advancement of its list of standards and approvals. Thus, the innovations become secret in order to obtain an improvement in performance and thus fight for victories..
“Invention patents have the peculiarity that when you present it in an intellectual property office in a country, that information will later be published, so everyone will have access to the information in that patent. And after 20 years of protection, that will fall into the public domain and anyone will be able to use this information to replicate that patent.”, explains intellectual property expert lawyer Catalina Olivos, in dialogue with Sporting.
“For example, if I make an improvement in a Formula 1 element like the halo and I patent it, and it has something super specific that makes my car perform better, then the competitor will be able to use that patent in a few years. further. And if not, also, since that information is going to be published, it can be reverse engineered to achieve something similar to what I am patenting.“, Add.
The National Institute of Industrial Property (INAPI) defines industrial secrets as “all knowledge about industrial products or procedures, the maintenance of which provides its holder with an improvement, advancement or competitive advantage”.
In this sense, they emphasize that “all companies have business secrets. Some are acutely aware of the importance of strict strategies to ensure that their secrets are protected against any disclosure that could be harmful to them.”
One of these measures to maintain the confidentiality of these secrets is legal protection, which may include confidentiality agreements in employee contracts.
“In Formula 1 there are many team changes. They have very complex contracts where intellectual property issues and trade secrets are discussed. Clauses are established there where they are told that all the information they have collected cannot be taken elsewhere. In the end, that is also working with intellectual property.“, says Olivos.
This last situation has once again been present in Formula 1 with the case of the British engineer Adrian Newey who joined the Red Bull team in 2005, and is credited with the development of the cars with which the Austrian team has commanded the World Championship alongside driver Max Verstappen.
After 18 years of working together, the technological guru is in the sights of other teams that intend to take his experience. In this case, after ending his contract in 2025, A clause allows him to return to work in another team only from 2027 in what is called ‘gardening‘ (gardening).
This term refers to a clause that seeks to prevent the employee of one team from changing to another and working directly for a rival just at the time of ending their contract. This means that Newey, Red Bull’s chief engineer, could not participate in the construction of the Aston Martin vehicle in 2025, one of the teams that would be willing to bet on it. If he leaves, he could only work directly with the 2028 edition car.
Just like him gardening It seeks to ensure that the engineers’ knowledge somehow “expires”, the teams have the opportunity to investigate other people’s cars, but only when they are already circulating on the tracks. Photographers in charge of recording specific areas of the cars, direct inspection on the official television broadcast or the use of infrared cameras to see operating temperatures can be considered legal and tolerated ways to see what’s new about rivals.
Of course, this does not allow us to fully obtain knowledge of how each piece works. On the contrary, a situation that is punished is the transfer of confidential information such as plans and specific data between teams..
One of the most noisy cases was the so-called Spygate between Ferrari and McLaren in 2007, when Nigel Sepney, from the Prancing Horse team, was passing information to Mike Coughland. The suspicions of the Italian team led them to make the respective complaint to the prosecutor’s office. While the investigation found nothing out of the ordinary, everything changed when Ron Dennis (McLaren) informed former FIA boss Max Mosley of an email exchange.
After that, McLaren suffered expulsion from the 2007 World Cup and a fine of 100 million dollars.
In the same year, the team Renault was also reprimanded after a newly signed engineer from McLaren had brought with him data from his former team from 2006 and 2007..
Another striking event happened in the 1978 season when a good part of the Shadow team, dissatisfied with their boss, formed a new team: Arrows. When the two cars took to the track it was clear that they were the same.. Over time, the justice system decided to punish Arrows with a ban on using the vehicle as well as a fine.
