Over the winter, newly promoted team principal Andrea Stella led a thorough review of the Woking design department. It subsequently let go of technical chief James Key, restructured its leadership, and hired David Sanchez from Ferrari and Red Bull veteran engineer Rob Marshall.
With elements of that revised set-up in place, McLaren upgraded its current MCL60 from what was a backmarker car in the early races to then scoring podiums in the British and Hungarian Grands Prix plus a top-three finish in the Spa sprint immediately before the summer break.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown also signed off on the construction of a new on-site wind tunnel and simulator. Their completion, he believes, will leave the team with no more "big gaps" to fill as it targets championship success in the next couple of seasons.
Speaking exclusively to Autosport, Brown said: "I think, other than constant fine-tuning, there's not big gaps like we've had the last five years.
"Not having our own wind tunnel, having a 20-year-old simulator, being behind in CFD technology, those were big holes. Now this is going to be about fine-tuning.
"There isn't anything that we're staring at that is like, 'We need a new wind tunnel'. All that will be in place."
Brown did say, however, that the major benefits would not fully manifest themselves until 2025, with the time required for the new-look F1 team to integrate and optimise.
He continued: "Other than you're obviously always fine-tuning, we'll have everything that we need.
Source: Autosport