McLaren insists new car 'completely different' to Red Bull

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella has insisted the team's new car is "completely different" from Red Bull-designed machinery.

The Woking-based outfit enjoyed a productive test despite a scattering of gremlins across the three days of running at the Bahrain International Circuit, with fortunes far improved compared to pre-season in the previous two years.

McLaren's MCL38 is an evolution of the car it finished last season with, a concept seemingly based heavily on the dominant Red Bull RB19, which saw a huge turnaround in performance when initially introduced at the Austrian Grand Prix with Lando Norris.

Yet despite the distinctive features displayed on the new car, Stella has downplayed the likeliness to F1's Constructors' champion.

'They have been ahead in the journey'

"It is completely different," Stella told media including RacingNews365 when asked about similarities to Red Bull.

"Let's say there are some areas of the car in the launch specification that have significantly evolved compared to last year - some of them very noticeable.

"There are some other areas that are only incrementally improved, but we see in development, there is actually quite a lot of potential that we didn't exploit in time to put on the launch car.

"It has nothing to do with a major redesign which would be required to achieve what Red Bull has done. Ok, we are confident in our development, we are confident in the concepts we have in the car, but if anything, it is a matter of how far you are in the journey.

"Clearly, they have been ahead in the tourney and they sort of keep this margin in terms of where they are positioned."