McLaren says marketing chief still at team

McLaren has clarified claims that another key member of the Honda-powered team is leaving.

It has been all change at Woking recently, with supremo Ron Dennis leaving and now a man he appointed - Jost Capito - set to follow.

But a McLaren spokesman told GMM that "We aren’t commenting" on the Capito rumours.

As for reports marketing chief Ekrem Sami is also leaving, however, the spokesman said: "We can confirm that Ekrem has stepped down from the board of McLaren Technology Group but remains a member of the management team."

It’s also a period of change at Williams, with rumours that Valtteri Bottas is off to Mercedes, Felipe Massa is cancelling his short retirement, and Paddy Lowe set to arrive as technical boss.

On the Lowe appointment, it has now been made official that existing technical boss Pat Symonds is retiring at the end of the month.

"We now look to the future and will be announcing details regarding the team’s technical leadership in due course," said deputy boss Claire Williams.