The crisis of confidence threatens between the teams and the FIA

Several team members have expressed concerns following the consecutive recruitment of two FIA members by Renault and Ferrari.

It started with the former FIA technical director, Marcin Budkowski, being recruited by the Renault team and who would begin collaborating with the team starting this month. This had triggered the ire of other team directors, who feared that well-kept secrets would be passed on to the French team. The diamond brand then played the appeasement card by agreeing to postpone his start date to April.

But a second layer was added with Ferrari’s recent hiring of the former FIA deputy safety director, Laurent Mekies. This had created a new controversy regarding the notice period that should exist when a member moves from one team to another or from the FIA to a racing team.

The director of Sauber, Frédéric Vasseur regrets these two imbroglios: « It’s a shame that we are not in a situation where the FIA could find a way to retain its key members. I remember perfectly the situation with Marcin (Budkowski), he was in all the wind tunnels two weeks before his departure. Laurent (Mekies) is aware of the key details of each car, even if he was more focused on safety, he is aware of essential elements. »

The former head of ART Grand Prix even thinks that this might lead to a conflictual relationship between the various teams and the regulatory body at Place de la Concorde: « At some point, if we cannot trust them, it will be a problem because we need to be very open with the FIA. We need to ask them if we are within the regulations or not. If we are afraid of this, it will be the beginning of chaos. »

To return to the case of Laurent Mekies, it led to a verbal clash between Red Bull director Christian Horner and Ferrari’s Maurizio Arrivabene during the pre-race press conference in Australia. Indeed, the director of the Austrian team was very upset because a tacit agreement had apparently been made between the teams (after the Budkowski affair) to extend the notice period when an employee changes teams. The Briton was even angrier because Ferrari had pushed for a one-year notice period, yet did not keep their word by signing a contract with Mekies.

The director of operations at Force India, Otmar Szafnauer, said he is embarrassed by the situation and is in favor of a one-year notice period in such cases: « The time between (Mekies’) departure from the FIA and his arrival at Ferrari should have been delayed by at least a year. »

Before adding: It is difficult to prevent employees from moving from the FIA to teams, but the notice period should be long enough so that you cannot take a team’s intellectual property because you have a privileged position at the FIA. It’s not fair.

The American then reflects on the gentlemen’s agreement or tacit agreement accepted by all teams, which Ferrari’s president Sergio Marchionne would have discarded by violating it and declaring that it had no legal or binding value: « I wonder what that says about the gentlemen? He (the president of Ferrari, Sergio Marchionne) was vehement about it. I’ll discuss it with him at the next meeting. »