Ferrari wins legal battle over Aston Martin: Enrico Cardile violated a non-compete commitment

Aston Martin has made big investments in the past year to reinforce their team with some of the best engineers out there. The signing of Adrian Newey was very talked about, with the legendary engineer from Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, who worked with Ayrton Senna decades ago, starting last Monday as Managing Technical Partner, starting to work on the 2026 car.

However, the arrival of Enrico Cardile will have to wait. Aston Martin announced the hiring of this Ferrari veteran as Chief Technical Officer last summer, but after losing a court battle to Ferrari, Cardile will not be allowed to start working until July 18. The reason is the non-compete commitment with Ferrari, a clause in Cardile's contract, negotiated between the Italian and British companies, to "prevent other F1 teams from gaining an unjustified competitive advantage by hiring Cardile earlier than allowed".

When Ferrari found out that their former chassis technical director has already started working for Aston Martin, they were angry. According to the statement, having him work early would cause "irreparable harm to Ferrari". Ferrari then requested to the Court of Modena that Cardile should "immediately cease any form of collaboration with Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team until next July 18", as read in a Ferrari statement.

The news is a blow for Aston Martin, which hoped to start working as early as possible on the 2026 car, hoping to turn the team owned by Lawrence Stroll into a World Title contenders, with drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.