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Renault has announced its plans for Marcin Budkowski, who joins the French manufacturer in a controversial move. Earlier in the 2017 season, the deal sparked uproar from Renault's rivals, as Budkowski had just stepped down from his role with the FIA.
Part of his duties with Formula 1's governing body was to visit the wind tunnels of teams. The Pole was shown data from the teams before leaving his role, meaning he had inside information to carry over to Renault.
However, Renault came to an agreement, stating that Budkowski's arrival had been delayed until April 1st, meaning he would not be working on the chassis until that date. Amid fury up and down the paddock, team boss Cyril Abiteboul says Budkowski has not been hired due to his knowledge of the other team's plans.
"I can understand the scepticism of the teams, but we are not recruiting someone of the calibre of Marcin in a position of executive director just for what he knows of the other teams," Abiteboul told Autosport. "We are recruiting him for his capabilities, his experience, his skills.
"He's someone coming with a fantastic CV, outside of Formula 1 also, and he's a perfect fit for building the next stage of Renault in Formula 1. We are not interested in the secrets about the other cars, and I think a good demonstration is the fact we have accepted basically to keep him in isolation from any chassis development until April.
"The situation is he will actually be under our payroll from January onwards, but not involved in any Formula 1 chassis development. He will be involved in non-F1 work, focusing on the number of other racing activities we are doing."
Fergal Walsh
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Replies (6)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Even if you dont, you have to realize how suspect it seem. Mind, will it help them if they legit steal past year's progress from another team? Likely not much, but its still a significant advantage. It would've been better if they waited a year or so. But on the plus side, I suspect the FIA will monitor them very closely now.
Either way, its far too much of an open move to be anything like what McLaren did with Ferrari that time.
f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
Renault is a strong team anyway so... what's it to them
Pauli
Posts: 140
I'm a bit surprised that FIA actually had that highly regard technical specialist working for them. Often governing bodies can't offer competitive enough salaries. I don't actually know anything specifically about FIA in many other sports that is the case.
Even if they can't use his inside knowledge directly he has had a lot information that a skilled engineer can use to learn how different changes impact performance on different tracks. Basically it has been a perfect position to practice for a technical management position.
boudy
Posts: 1,168
Yeah right. He is hired for all he knows and that includes the info about the other teams their direction they are taking. He's not just hired for being an engineer.
kngrthr
Posts: 203
some seem to be implying he should never work again in F1.
he has the right to move on just as drivers and engineers do.
i understand the reservations of some teams but the april time frame means anything he learned will be old hat by the time it could get on the car for next season.
its a reasonable compromise
boudy
Posts: 1,168
Not so sure. Most teams employ an bigger timeframe of an year. As is what happened to Ross Brawn. This isn't a lower or medium level engineer this is an senior level as I understand it. Having him work on non chassis stuff seems fine in principle however in practice most areas link with the chassis so he will be able to influence indirectly. Renault didn't sign him for nothing! This significant signing allows them to gain ground on their competition.