Paris: Renault Sport F1 technical director Rob White has expressed surprise and discomfort at former FIA staff member Gilles Simon joining engine manufacturer PURE.
During a telephonic interview, White said, "I have known Gilles for a long time. We have had good relationships with Gilles in his previous jobs at Ferrari and the FIA.
"We expect to continue to have good relationship with him at PURE. Nevertheless, the first reaction is a little bit of surprise and discomfort that an important staff member from the FIA to whom we had given quite open access over the course of recent discussions about rules can pop up in a different role as an employee of a competitor."
"We had given access to Gilles and any other member of the FIA technical staff about the technical work we were doing, the state of our finances, the project planning, the resources we deployed etc.
We would like to be reassured that information to which Gilles has had access to in those very privilege circumstances as a representative of the FIA is not used in his new capacity as an employee of a competitor," White added.
On a new engine supplier entering the fray from 2014, White said: "We don't yet know who will provide engines in 2014. These are big engineering projects to be accomplished.
"We expect to be racing the first race in 2014 with a Renault engine that we expect to be competitive. We expect to have four teams in 2014."
"I guess other people have expressed opinion on how many teams they would like to have. If we assume there will be 12 teams in 2014, then the remaining 8 teams will be shared by other people.Of course, Formula One what it is, things may change a bit between now and then."
"The fundamental thing of course is that nobody has yet made any formal announcements as to who they will work in 2014. It will become clear over the coming months," he added.
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