Teams take 'major issue' with Budkowski FIA departure

A number of Formula 1 team bosses have come out to criticize the period of "gardening leave" that head of the F1 technical department Marcin Budkowski will serve before being able to join a team.

The FIA has confirmed that Budkowski this week resigned from his position with immediate effect, and will be on leave for three months before being released from his contract. Budkowski is expected to take on a senior role at Renault but Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says the FIA's technical head cannot be allowed to join a team on such short notice.

"We take major issue with that, if he does end up in another team," Horner (pictured at right with McLaren chief Zak Brown) said. "In these individuals you place a great amount of trust – in the role Marcin has been responsible for, he's recently been in an extremely privileged position where he's been in people's wind tunnels, been looking at intimate details of knowledge of next year's cars.

"I think three months' notice period for him to then turn up in a competitor team in Formula 1 is entirely inappropriate, so I certainly hope that isn't the case and I'm sure it will get discussed quite seriously at the next Strategy Group meeting.

"It's an important, vital role and it's important teams have trust and faith in the governing body that they can share and discuss their technical know-how, their technical secrets in many respects, which cost millions and millions, and in confidence that information doesn't have the ability to end up at a rival team."

Sauber team principal Frederic Vasseur agreed with Horner's comments, and Force India chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer said a year would be a more acceptable notice period.

"I do agree and it would have been nice to know the notice period. Three months I don't think is long enough and if we had known it was three months earlier maybe we would have hired him... But three months is nowhere near long enough.

"I think a year [is suitable]. It has to be long enough such that the technology that he's aware of becomes, not obsolete but not leading edge. I think there's some sporting regulations too that prohibit us from selling current-year cars for exactly the same reason, the cars have to be exactly one year before we can dispose of them. It's for that reason and I think notice periods should follow along the same lines."

And another unhappy team boss – McLaren racing director Eric Boullier – believes there is nothing that can be done in regards to the Budkowski situation but wants to see changes implemented to prevent a repeat in future.

"Of course it's too late," Boullier said. "We are going to ask the FIA, is it possible to do differently because we believe it's not the way it should be. There have been many cases in the past, back to the '90s when the software code was a big issue in Formula 1. You can't stop somebody to go to work somewhere – you have to respect the rules and the law in different countries. But we believe for a senior person there is a minimum."