Christian Horner insists there will be no bargaining with 'hostages' in order to secure the early release of, AlphaTauri-bound, Laurent Mekies from his Ferrari contract.

As recently announced, Mekies is to leave Ferrari and join AlphaTauri where he will replace current team principal, Franz Tost.

However, no date has been given for the Frenchman's arrival because his contract with the Maranello outfit could involve a sustained period of gardening leave before he is actually released to the Faenza team.

It is known that Ferrari has been head-hunting Red Bull personnel, however Christian Horner insists that he is not open to deals whereby the release of senior staff members, allegedly including technical director Pierre Wache and aerodynamics chief Enrico Balbo, might smooth the way in terms of Mekies' early release.

"There's plenty of speculation," said the Briton. "Will there be a hostage exchange for Laurent Mekies? Well, we don't have any hostages," he added.

"In terms of personnel moving to Ferrari, certainly at a senior or medium level, there's nothing planned," he continued. "Individuals that have been mentioned in connection with Ferrari came to see me last week and mentioned their disbelief in some of these rumours. But, you know, it's Formula 1, that will inevitably happen, but there's no plans for any senior members of our team to be joining Maranello."