IMOLA -- McLaren team principal Andrea Stella welcomes his rivals' search for illegal elements on the championship-leading MCL39 as he remains confident they will ultimately waste their time.
McLaren has won five of the six rounds so far this season and has emerged dominant at circuits where tyre degradation is the main factor influencing performance.
Although no formal protests have been launched by rivals, there have been suspicions that McLaren might be employing techniques outside the regulations to keep tyre temperatures under control and gain an advantage.
One theory that has existed since last season is the possible use of water to cool the brake assembly and tyres, which would be outlawed by Article 11.5 of the technical regulations, but a post-Miami Grand Prix check by the FIA on Oscar Piastri's race-winning McLaren found the car in compliance.
Stella said such accusations, including the belief held by some rivals that McLaren will be hardest hit by stricter front wing rigidity tests at the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix, only serve to benefit his team's pursuit of the title.
"For us, it's good news when our rivals get their focus - rather than on themselves - onto some of the aspects that allegedly are present in our car, and that effectively are not even present," Stella said.
"And certainly, even if they were - let's say, flexi-wings like a front wing deflection, like everyone else -- it has nothing to do with the reason why McLaren is very competitive.
"So, I hope that in the future there will be more of these kinds of sagas because it means that our rivals keep focusing on the wrong things, and this is, for us, just good news. It's just helping our quest."
Asked if the key to McLaren's performance was not one single factor but a multitude of features that serve to deliver better overall performance, Stella added: "I would like to give the wrong answer here so that I put all our rivals down the wrong route.
"The only thing I can say is that for me, over the years in Formula 1, I've learned that you have to focus on yourself and focus on the fundamentals.
"I think when you get too distracted by what the others are doing, it's normally an alarm bell that you ring in your factory and should remind you to go back to the basics.
"So, I'm afraid I've given the right answer, so I've helped now my competitors. But you know, I'm intellectually honest, so I can't really give the wrong answer tactically."