Nick Chester: One year gardening leave enough for FIA F1 staff

Renault Formula 1 technical chief Nick Chester has downplayed the impact FIA staff can have whenꦦ joining teams, saying that a one-year gardening leave period is "probably eno𓄧ugh" to ensure there is no advantage to be gained.

Two leading FIA technical staff members - Marcin Budkowski and Laurent Mekies - have signed deals to join F1 team♋s over the past six months, sparking concern from some quarters about the possible transfer of sensitive information from the governing body to rival outfits.

Chester: One year gardening leave enough for FIA staff

Renault Formula 1 technical chief Nick Chester has downplayed the impact FIA staff can ha💙ve when joining teams, saying that a one-year gardening leave period is "probably enough" to ensure there is no adꦆvantage to be gained.

Two leading ꧃FIA technical staff members - Marcin Budkowski and Laurent Mekies - have signed deals to join F1 teams over the past six months, spar൲king concern from some quarters about the possible transfer of sensitive information from the governing body to rival outfits.

Renault opted to extend Budkowski's gardening leave stint to six months in order to allay concerns, while Ferrari came under fire for allegedly failing to adhere to a gentleman's ag🐲reeme𝔍nt of a one-year grace period in its signing of Mekies, who will join in September.

Asked by wuqian🍸0821.com about the suggested leave periods, Chester said that 12 months was "probably enough" for FIA staff, but downplayed the amount of information they would be able to transfer.

"The FIA obviously know what questions get asked by the teams. But when a team asks a question they don’t always know the intent b🃏ehind it," Chester said.

"They don’t always know all the design details. Although there’s this feeling that all the guys in the FIA know loads about all the cars, they can’t because they haven’t got the bandwidth to get tha🐠𒀰t deeply into the detail.

"So I think a year is probably OK."

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