McLaren chief Andrea Stella moved to rubbish the suggestion that Rob Marshall's impending arrival from Red Bull is linked to a potential engine deal between the two teams.
Last week it was announced that Marshall, who has worked for Red Bull for 17 years, will be joining McLaren at the start of next year. He will become the team's technical director of engineering and design as part of a restructuring of top staff at Woking.
The timing of the move has raised some suggestions that there might be more to it than simply a member of staff moving from one team to another.
McLaren currently use engines supplied by Mercedes but have yet to agree on a partnership deal from 2026. The team is considering its options and, as part of that, chief executive Zak Brown was spotted visiting Red Bull's Milton Keynes base in February.
Red Bull have built their own Powertrains department to become a bona fide Formula 1 constructor for the first time. It will supply its eponymous team as well as sister outfit AlphaTauri with power units, and could be open to supplying others on the grid who do not create their own engines.
But Stella, who was appointed team principal in December following the departure of Andreas Seidl, denied that the deal to bring in Marshall from Red Bull is linked to any potential power unit deal that might be struck between the teams.
"I can confirm there is no link," he told reporters. "We had conversations with Red Bull a few months ago as part of the due diligence in exploring what's available in the market in terms of power unit for 2026. But at the moment, we are quite advanced in our negotiations with HPP, so there's no conversation ongoing with Red Bull."
Marshall is not the only Red Bull staff member to leave the team with Ferrari in particular aggressively trying to poach engineers from the defending champions. Team principal Christian Horner hailed Marshall for his "truly outstanding" contributions during his time at Milton Keynes.
But team adviser Helmut Marko insists Red Bull will not be too badly impacted by his move to McLaren. "We parted very peacefully – it is a deal that is good for both parties," said the Austrian.
"Rob was an incredibly important employee for 17 years. But we are so widely positioned by now that this departure will not have a serious disadvantage for us, I think. Or none at all."
