McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella has dismissed Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff's claims that a recent upgrade package has been worth at least a second in lap time.
The Woking-based outfit had struggled with its initial iteration of the MCL60, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri often struggling to reach the top 10 in either qualifying or the race.
Norris had suggested at the Monaco and Spanish Grands Prix that McLaren was the sixth or seventh fastest team, such was its struggles.
But after an upgrade package was given to the Briton in Austria and to Piastri at the following round at Silverstone, McLaren has been scintillating to join the battle for best of the rest behind the dominant Red Bulls.
Norris picked up two consecutive runner-up finishes behind runaway championship leader Max Verstappen in Britain and Hungary, whilst Piastri finished second in the Belgian Grand Prix Sprint.
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Assessing the change in fortunes for McLaren, Mercedes Team Principal Wolff suggested McLaren had gained a second in lap time.
Reacting to the claim, Stella - who took over at the helm following Andreas Seidl's switch to Sauber in the winter - told media including RacingNews365.com: "In fairness, we haven't done a proper numerical estimate.
"We had our own internal estimate based on what we saw in the aerodynamic maps and then you simulate these and this gives you a number, which I cannot share.
"But it wasn't a second.
"So somehow, the behaviour of your car and the development of your car kind of helps with the tyres at the same time and this gives you further lap time benefit."
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