This hasn't been talked about and I think it's important enough for a wee chat.
Full Reuter's Article
Obviously, Toto and Horner have been quite vocal about this. It's understandable since Budkowski has intimate knowledge of their 2018 CFD designs, their wind tunnel data, their computing/processing power and software, their individual designs - including but not limited to suspension, aero, cooling, PU, etc.
The FIA mandates a 3 month gardening leave but Renault has said they would extend it to 6 months.
Basically, a guy with "full" knowledge of other teams entries for the 2018 season will be starting work for Renault F1 next year.
When moving from team to team there's generally a 6 month to a year of "gardening" leave. But it's not uncommon - it happens all the time. However, this is a guy with secret information of ALL the teams going to Renault.
He also knows the rules and regs better than anyone else in F1 since he's responsible for them and their "correct" interpretation. Therefore he knows where the loopholes are the other teams are using (in secret) and he knows just how much he's able to squeeze past scrutiny while still being legal.
It really has put the cat amongst the pigeons but it's one huge coup for Renault. I think the FIA is going to be inundated with teams filing protest next year.
Highly interesting.
Sounds sketchy to me. As much as I'm in favor of another team breaking Merc's dominance, I agree with you that other teams can't help but protest the move.
Especially in light of Renault's involvement in Crashgate a decade ago, this won't help their credibility.
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Crashgate and they were found with full McLaren drawings on their computers during Spygate but nothing ever came of it.
Technical heads do move teams - even in the last few years we've had technical directors James Allison jump to Ferrari then to Merc and Paddy Lowe from Merc to Williams. Then there's the RB aero chief Peter Prodromou who moved to McLaren and within a couple of weeks we see RB style front wings on it. So people jump and take data with them however there's normally a longer gardening period. And it's obvious to some that they implement the ideas/concepts from their previous teams.
This time the guy knows literally everything about every team and intimately so.
The difference here, I believe, is scope. 1 team's info vs every team's. And, obviously, duration of gardening leave. Also, that he's come from the governing bodies operation.
I guess when teams hire ex-michelin/bridgestone/pirelli people it would be similar too.
Honda should have thought of this...
"It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes."
-DNC
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