Court ruling sees Ferrari stall former director's move to Aston Martin until July.

On 11 April last year, Ferrari announced that Cardile, the team's Technical Director Chassis Area, was leaving with immediate effect. Just under twenty-four hours later, Aston Martin announced that it had secured the services of the Italian.

"I am delighted to welcome Enrico to Aston Martin," said (then) team boss Mike Krack. "Enrico has nearly 20 years of experience at Ferrari and will offer a fresh perspective to our technical strategy. This is a key appointment for the team as we build towards the new 2026 regulations - an important next step on our journey."

"I'm looking forward to joining Aston Martin," added Cardile. "The ambition and desire are clear and it is a unique opportunity to be part of that journey. This is a personal and professional challenge and I look forward to working with the team to bring success to this iconic brand."

Though no date was given for his arrival, in January Aston Martin revealed a restructure which would see the team "spearheaded" by Cardile, and which could "now focus 100% of its time on the competitive ingenuity challenge of creating a new race car.

"Enrico will oversee the architecture, design and build of new race cars," the Silverstone-based outfit added.

While Ferrari had clearly accepted his departure, the team remained clearly miffed at the lack of notice from him when leaving, hence the "immediate departure".

Since then the teams have bickered over when he was free to start work, the Italian consequently confined to tending his garden.

Now it has been revealed that Ferrari went to court and won, the court in Modena ruling that Cardile cannot begin work with his new team until July, after Ferrari claimed that the Italian was "already violating the non-compete commitment with Ferrari".

The Maranello outfit, referred to a clause in his contract which was included "precisely to prevent other F1 teams from gaining an unjustified competitive advantage by hiring Cardile earlier than allowed, causing irreparable harm to Ferrari".

"This is a matter between Enrico and Ferrari and their legal representatives in Italy, and the parties continue to be engaged in the process," said Aston Martin in response to the ruling.

"As such we won't be making any further comment. We will make an announcement in due course."

While the delay will seriously impact Aston Martin ahead of the rules overhaul next season, despite the uncertainty, team boss Andy Cowell has insisted that the team already in place has the wherewithal to deal with the situation, insisting that a large group of people are already working on the car.

If only the team had access to a talented designer come technical director.