Grapevine: McLaren deny rumours of staff leave
McLaren have dismissed rumours that more of their technical staff are set to leave the team, following the departure of technical chief Adrian Newey
Recent reports in the German and Italian press claim McLaren have lost more key figures in their engineering staff, most notably head of aerodynamic development Peter Prodromou and vehicles director Nicolas Tombazis.
According to speculations, Prodromou is set to join Newey at Red Bull Racing, while Tombazis is reported to return to his former team, Ferrari.
But McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh dismissed these stories and said the speculations merely highlight McLaren's superiority.
"Inevitably, if you are a successful F1 team, then your staff are attracted to other teams occasionally by good deals," Whitmarsh told reporters at Barcelona. "However, aside from Adrian, I don't recall any senior people or middle ranking people from engineering that are departing.
"I have seen the stories (about Prodromou and Tombazis), but we have not had the turnover of staff that I have seen commented on in the media.
"But if you have a successful formula, people will try to aggressively attract your staff. If no one was interested in your staff, then I would be worried.
"So I would rather have the challenge of holding onto our staff."
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