Issues over the partnership with Red Bull and RB, the former AlphaTauri team, have rumbled on in recent months, with McLaren's Zak Brown particularly vocal over the potential issues arising from one entity owning two F1 teams.
Brown's concerns stem from much more than staff transferring between the two teams and thereby sharing IP, and also relate to areas including political influence and race strategy.
But on a technical level, Mekies believes the design of its VCARB01 shows that the Anglo-Italian squad is still very much charting its own course rather than copying its parent team.
"Our car is not the Red Bull of last year, it simply isn't, and if anyone feels like analysing it technically, they will see it," Mekies said in an exclusive interview with Autosport's sister website Motorsport.com Italy.
"All our rivals, without exception, tried to find inspiration looking at the RB19, so did we, but we know from Formula 1 history that copying is not something unusual.
"We see it even today in the paddock, no two cars are identical or even close to being identical, and I would add that after seeing all the cars in the pitlane I can say that visually ours is among those which look the least like the RB19.
Source: Autosport