In a shocking and sudden turn of events, Marcin Budkowski, the head of the FIA F1 technical department, resigned from his position on Tuesday. His position gave him access to most of the teams’ technical plans for the 2018, causing the teams to worry that he may be joining the staff of a team.
Budkowski was a big figure in the FIA, poised to eventually replace Charlie Whiting. His resignation from his position on the FIA came suddenly, with the FIA then placing him on a three-month gardening leave period. The teams were informed of Budkowski’s exit by Charlie Whiting and told to stop communicating with him regarding their car designs.
Budkowski joined the FIA in October 2014, having worked for Ferrari and McLaren. He was appointed to the position as the head of technical development in the FIA just prior to the start of the season. His position meant that he would receive nearly every design plan from the teams to ensure that the design was within the regulations. This means that he now has a lot of secret information that the teams would like to ensure stays that way.
The six teams in F1 Strategy Group (Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren, Force India and Williams) met in the Malaysia paddock to discuss concerns that Budkowski is leaving the FIA to join a team in 2018. Due to the amount of information that he had access to and now knows, this could give the hiring team an unfair advantage over the other competitors.
Although his future has not yet been confirmed, it is believed that Budkowski will be joining Renault. Renault has not yet confirmed these rumors.
The matter is expected to be brought to the FIA’s attention at the next F1 Strategy Group meeting, in an attempt to blockade Budkowski from joining a team until 2019 at the earliest.
