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The Aston Martin Formula 1 team is still uncertain when its highly coveted signing of Enrico Cardile as chief technical officer from Ferrari will be able to start.
The recruitment of Cardile, previously Ferrari's technical director in charge of chassis and aerodynamics, was announced by Aston Martin on July 9 last year.
Its last official reference of Cardile's arrival came as recently as January 10 this year, when Aston Martin announced a reorganisation of its technical structure under recently appointed CEO and new team principal Andy Cowell.
Aston Martin said that the team based at its Silverstone facility "will be spearheaded" by Cardile and that "Enrico will oversee the architecture, design and build of new race cars".
But unlike incoming managing technical partner Adrian Newey, a massive recruit from Red Bull, there is no start date for Cardile.
Newey begins on March 3 and his arrival has been talked about openly by Aston Martin, with Cowell even remarking that a drawing board has already been set up in Newey's office.
There has been no such clarity with Cardile. Aston Martin has never set a specific start date and that is still the case now, with Newey set to start next week even though he was recruited after Cardile.
Last December, it was reported in Italy that Cardile would start in January. But Cowell's predecessor as team principal and current Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack said he did not know if Cardile would be able to join that early.
At 2025 pre-season testing in Bahrain, Cowell did not directly answer questions from The Race about when Cardile's arrival would be.
Asked when Cardile would start, Cowell said: "We're looking forwards to having a...I guess what we're looking forward to is having 1000 people working well together.
"We're looking forward to Adrian joining. We’re looking forward to the dozens of new starters that we have every month. I think it was 248 through the 2024 calendar year.
"So, we're looking forward to having everybody together and working well as a team, each member having clear responsibilities, from Adrian, myself, down to interns working for us for 12 months in their degree."
Cowell avoided answering a repeat of the question, jokingly inviting a question from someone else. When asked by The Race if he expects to have everybody who is joining, including Cardile, in time to contribute to the 2026 car, he declined to answer directly.
"I think everybody's...there's a big group of people already working on the 2026 car, pushing forwards," he said.
"And as we add people in, then we get stronger and increased capacity, increased experience just helps push us forward."
It is understood there is no doubt over whether Cardile will still join and it is only the date that is in question.
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Hamilton has worked a lot in tweaking the arrangement of the buttons on the Ferrari steering wheel to his liking, and some of his efforts have been revealed during the opening day of pre-season testing at Bahrain on Wednesday.
Ferrari communicated on July 8 last year that Cardile "is leaving the company" and "has handed in his notice". Assuming a 12-month wait to be allowed to join, unless an agreement can be reached for something shorter, he may not be able to begin work until July.
The long wait is significant because at the time Cardile was announced, team chairman Lawrence Stroll mentioned that it was done "as we look to reinforce the technical leadership team ahead of significant regulation changes in 2026".
The later Cardile arrives this year the less impact he will be able to have on the car and how Aston Martin starts the new F1 rules era.
By July, for example, Aston Martin will have the main details of its 2026 chassis set and its aerodynamic development will be well advanced.
Newey will be taking a key role in that project as it is set to be his priority once he starts but Cardile would have been expected to feed into it as much as possible.
Last December, Aston Martin's commercial managing director Jefferson Slack said: "Some of the brightest minds in the sport, such as Andy Cowell, Adrian Newey, and Enrico Cardile are joining our already very talented team of people; we've got a new works partnership with Honda; and a new windtunnel and simulator about to come online.
"All the pieces of the puzzle are coming together to enable us to fight for regular podiums, race wins and championship."
But Aston Martin is being made to wait for one of those pieces longer than it hoped.
