Formula 1’s top teams have written to F1’s leading figures including FIA president Jean Todt and Liberty Media CEO Chase Carey regarding the situation over former FIA technical chief Marcin Budkowski.
Budkowski was recently placed on a immediate three-month gardening leave by the FIA after he tendered his resignation, a heaviliy linked move to Renault appears to be his next destination.
Other teams are furious with situation, as the former Ferrari and McLaren man has recently been around some of the team’s factories. While only having to serve three months gardening leave, he could in theory be with the French manufacturer at the beginning of the 2018 season and still share some of the other teams most intimate details.
Wolff told Motorsport.com: “I wish Marcin well, he’s a good guy. I think if he can move back to a team and make a career, I wouldn’t want to stand in his way.
“But as an FIA official if you make rules and issue Technical Directives you cannot negotiate a deal to join a team and within a three months, join them.
“There might be a potential conflict of interests, which I’m not saying he has in any way abused, but there should be some kind of ethical policy that we all follow.
“We don’t want him to look compromised in a position when he was heavily involved in the rule-making and on the other side having ongoing discussions with teams. There needs to be a certain delay, I guess.”
With Budkowski’s leave only three months long due to being bound by Swiss law, the teams are hinting at trying to enforce the leave to be longer for technical staff in future situations. There is also a possible push to prevent the Pole from joining the the Enstone-based outfit.
Force India’s Bob Fernley added: “I don’t know if something can be done at this point, but I think we probably have to look backwards and forwards.
“It is probably too early to make any decisions on it. Realistically we should get Japan out of the way and have some breathing space to discuss it better.
“It’s quite clear that he’s going to Renault, so there is a threat there. It doesn’t affect Force India quite as much as it obviously affects people like Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. But it still affects us, and there are still things that we are doing.
“The process in the past has been to go to the FIA and say this is what we are thinking of doing, how does it sit from your side? And we get a very unbiased and clear direction on it. The difficulty is that if you can’t rely on that, then you’re going to have to take more chances.”
