James Key will be at McLaren in 2019 - Brown

McLaren announced last season that they had signed Toro Rosso technical director James Key, rather prematurely. But, McLaren CEO Zak Brown has revealed that the engineer will be with the side for the 2019 season.

There is speculation that Key has a contract until 2020 with the Red Bull reserve team and they were in no rush to break that contract for the highly-rated engineer.

However, Brown has said in an interview with Motorsport-Total that Key will join the side in 2019.

"James will be with us next year," Brown revealed.

"Of course one would rather that James works with us sooner rather than later, we have committed to him because we think he is incredibly talented."

Brown also admitted that he feels comfortable with the ability of his team right now, but has said that they could do with some more experienced workers in Woking.

"They work well together," Brown insisted. "We have to get the right people to the right places now, and that's not going to happen overnight.

"We're looking forward to seeing (Key) but he has not had any input into the 2019 car."

McLaren's car in 2018 was disappointing and it led to very little highlights in a rather underwhelming campaign for McLaren. But now they have new faces in Woking; and it feels like a fresh start with Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz representing the orange car now.