The Woking-based squad has made some impressive gains with its MCL60 after unleashing a raft of upgrades to its car since Austria last weekend.
The scale of its progress, which has resulted in Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri securing second and third on the grid at the British Grand Prix, has prompted some pointed remarks about its design being similar to Red Bull's RB19.
Lewis Hamilton said after qualifying: “If you just put it alongside a Red Bull, it looks very, very similar down the sides. It's working. It is great.”
But McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says that while the design does adopt some of the key philosophical elements of the Red Bull, it would be unfair to suggest it is just a straight copy.
“Every team takes inspiration from any other team,” said Stella. “Teams are equipped to try to absorb IP from looking at the photos, and from looking at the cars on display on Friday. So, you do take inspiration from the other cars.
“But taking inspiration, or even looking at the photo, doesn't mean that you copy the geometry, you install it in your CFD runs in the computer simulation or in the wind tunnel, and then the car lights up in terms of downforce.
“Normally what happens is it [the performance] goes down, because your car is already optimised around what you have done up until that point.”
Source: Autosport