Former Ferrari man, Enrico Cardile was set to join Aston Martin in January of this year, as their Chief Technical Officer. However, after leaving the Maranello-based team, last year, Ferrari had filed a lawsuit, restraining the Italian from stepping into his new role at the Silverstone-based team so early.
As is common in the F1 paddock, Cardile’s departure from Ferrari was followed by a mandated ‘gardening leave’. Aston Martin had expected to see his services from the start of the new year, but Ferrari filed a court case in Modena alleging that would violate Cardile’s non-compete clause.
A decision has now been awarded in favor of the Scuderia, with Cardile asked to terminate any contact with Aston Martin immediately until the 18th of July. The bottom line is: this isn’t good news for the Silverstone outfit’s new technical hierarchy.
Interesting news out of Italy as it emerges Ferrari has won legal action to stop its former chassis technical director Enrico Cardile working for Aston Martin before his gardening leave period ends on July 18. #F1 pic.twitter.com/8j6iNSiGtn
— Jon Noble (@NobleF1) March 4, 2025
While on the face of it, this would only seem like a temporary delay, the sporting implications of this order could be massive for Aston Martin. Not only does this rule out Cardile’s involvement in the 2025 project, it also forces him to sit out for a substantial period of time as the team works on the all-important 2026 regulations.
“Had he [Cardile] arrived on this date [January] it would have been great for getting on with late development of the 2025 [car] and getting ahead on the 2026 [car]. Now he arrives in July. That’s a lot of months of work already committed for the 2026 car,” explained The Race’s Jonathan Noble.
Cardile was expected to spearhead the design of the 2026 car alongside legendary designer, Adrian Newey. And while Newey will get to work on the project, he will surely miss the expertise and perspective of a man like Cardile.
Why did Ferrari force a court case against Aston Martin and Cardile?
At the heart of the matter, Ferrari simply wanted to enforce the gardening leave clause in Cardile’s contract. But Noble believes that the Maranello-based team had in fact caught wind of the fact that Cardile had secretly already started working for the Silverstone-based team.
The court documents are out of the public domain, but Noble explained that Ferrari could have ascertained from computer files, etc., that Cardile had already started helping Aston Martin out with their design concepts for 2025 and 2026.
It is commonplace in the F1 paddock for team members to start informally discussing things with their new employers, but in Cardile’s case, it appears that his inputs were more than just benign chatter.
This comes after Ferrari team principal, Frederic Vasseur, trying to restrict any potential leak of important information from within the team, and especially in the context of Aston Martin being very vocal about their championship ambitions in 2026 and beyond.
For now, the Silverstone stable hasn’t made any statement about this situation around Cardile. Only time will tell whether they promptly look to appeal the Modena court’s decision or abide by it to onboard Cardile after July 18th.
