Former F1 champion Damon Hill makes PLEA for drastic rule change

Otmar Szafnauer, Andreas Seidl — Photo: © LAT Images

Damon Hill

Former F1 champion makes PLEA for drastic rule change

Damon Hill believes getting rid of 'gardening leave' will benefit teams

Neil Goulding

Tuesday 15 August 2023 13:57

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Damon Hill has claimed that ‘gardening leave’ for anyone wanting to change teams is 'not in the spirit' of Formula 1.

The 1996 world champion admitted he doesn’t understand why drivers, team principals and any member of staff shouldn’t be permitted to jump ship and start pastures new straight away.

But the current trend on the circuit is to put an employee on gardening leave to delay their start at a rival - and that means that person could face a prolonged period on the sidelines before they start their new job.

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Hill's opinion comes after the news emerged that veteran F1 engineer Pat Fry has left Alpine to join Williams as its new chief technical officer - but that he won't take up his role with the team until November.

Not in the spirit of F1

Damon Hill won the world championship in 1996 with Williams

“This whole business of gardening leave and people not being able to go from one team to another, well I think it’s not in the spirit of the sport if you see what I mean?” Hill told the F1 Nation podcast.

“People should be able to go ‘I’m leaving and I’m going to start immediately at another team’. I think that would actually sharpen things up a little bit and probably brings team closer.”

“I just think the whole business of a team being able to stop someone using their skills, immediately somewhere else, has made it harder for teams to get together," he added.

“I think it’s that fluidity that is going to bring teams closer together and make it much harder for teams to get away.”