McLaren are working to expedite James Key's start date after recently announcing they'd signed an agreement for the Britain to join the team as their new technical director.
Key however remains contracted to Toro Rosso on a "long-term" deal, which is believed to run until 2020 and Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko expressed no desire during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend to let him out of that deal early.
"[McLaren boss] Zak Brown asked us if we would release him from this contract earlier," said Marko. "We were still negotiating when suddenly we read in the press that McLaren has signed him. Mr Key will have to wait a long time before he can work for McLaren."
But Brown, whilst acknowledging the deal, said there were "ways" to make sure he could start sooner rather than later, though he wouldn't expand on what that might involve.
"We have hired James Key, he will become our technical director," Brown insisted. "We do not yet have a start date. He does have a current agreement with Toro Rosso which of course, we respect contractual situations.
"I think Toro Rosso and Red Bull are understandably upset that they’re losing a great talent like James Key. He’s recognised as one of the best technical directors up and down the pit lane. We’re very excited to have him join us in due course.
"There’s always, in the world of Formula 1, ways and opportunities to change situations," he added. "That’s certainly something that we’d potentially consider, but we have a plan.
"We obviously knew his current employment situation and are completely comfortable working around that situation. So as we’ve stated before, we’ve done some restructuring. We’ve done some hiring. We’re not done yet, so we’re just head down, operating according to the internal plan that we have."
It's been suggested McLaren could loan Formula 2 star Lando Norris to Toro Rosso in exchange for Key, but it's likely parent team Red Bull would want a long-term deal with the British driver, therefore McLaren may be forced to release him entirely which would be a tough decision for Brown, who is known to be a big supporter of the 18-year-old.
