I know for a fact this is absolutely not true! the first Aston with a paddle shift system was the Vanquish whcih came out in 2002-2003. The first Ferrari with a paddle shift system was the 355 in the mid-late 1990's. I owned a
355 and 360, and currently own a 430 and 599 all with Ferrari F1 paddle shift system, and have owned a Vanquish and a Vanquish S so I have first hand experience with both. The Aston Martin paddle shift system is nowhere near as fast as the Ferrari system. The confusion may be that Aston may be purchasing it's systems from the company that works with Ferrari on the Ferrari F1 system (this is simply speculationon my part as to where the confusion came from). The aStons are beautiful cars (fit and finish), but the Ferraris seem to have more spirit.