Ferrari deal Aston Martin heavy blow in legal case

Ferrari has won a crucial legal battle against Aston Martin regarding the services of its former chassis technical director Enrico Cardile.

Aston Martin announced Cardile as its new chief technical director last July. He was due to begin working for the team this year. 

No official start date, however, was confirmed by the Silverstone-based outfit, leaving many perplexed. It has now come to light that it was due to court action in Italy.

Ferrari is unhappy with Cardile for violating the clauses of his contract, which prevented him from working with other teams before the expiry of that agreement. It has emerged he had already started supporting Aston Martin. 

As a result, the Maranello-based team went to the Court of Modena, where victory was claimed to stop Cardile from collaborating with Aston Martin until July 18.

A statement from Ferrari issued to RacingNews365 said: "With reference to the recent news regarding the timing of Enrico Cardile's arrival at Aston Martin, Ferrari clarifies that a few weeks ago the Court of Modena, upholding the requests of the Company, ordered Enrico Cardile to immediately cease any form of collaboration with Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team until next July 18.

"In this urgent procedural phase, the Court of Modena found that our former employee was already violating the non-compete commitment with Ferrari, whose purpose was precisely to prevent other F1 teams from gaining an unjustified competitive advantage by hiring Cardile earlier than allowed, causing irreparable harm to Ferrari."