McLaren denies Newey move

Newey has long been linked to a move away from McLaren either to another team or out of the sport altogether - he was close to signing for Jaguar Racing when it was under the control of Bobby Rahal back in 2001, before McLaren persuaded him to stay on.

"He won't be going to another F1 team," said Whitmarsh, "but he might want the opportunity to pursue other things."

As well as a rumoured return to Williams, where he oversaw the design of four world championship winning cars in the 1990s, Newey has long harboured dreams to design a yacht for the America's Cup.

"His contract ends towards the end of this season," Whitmarsh added. "He is focussed, competitive and has put everyting in to MP4-20. We've said to him look lets do that and then talk again when the season is underway.

"We'll see, although we have a very strong engineering team to succeed him if he did leave. Although I personally doubt that he will."