Carlos Sainz has offered an insight into why this year's McLaren is proving such a step forward on the 2018 car.

The British outfit is already within touching distance of matching last season's points tally as an impressive run of results has seen them open a 20-point lead over Renault in the race for fourth in the Constructors' standings.

Even new team boss Andreas Seidl admits their performance this year was beyond most expectations, while Renault's Daniel Ricciardo was envious of McLaren's pace.

"The biggest effect the package has had is on high-speed corners," Sainz explained via GPFans.com. "So in France and in Austria, our was car performing very well on high-speed.

"That's probably why in Monaco and Canada we didn't see any big benefits, or we were just not as good as we were in the last two races.

"Now, we have a very nice rear end in high-speed and that is allowing us to be really fast."

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Though McLaren does appear to have the fourth fastest car currently, that isn't enough to satisfy the team with Seidl admitting the Woking-based outfit needs to take more chances.

“What is the most important thing for me is to see continuous development, and continuous improvement for the team back home and back here [at the track],” he was quoted by PlanetF1.

“We need to build up this confidence again inside the team and to be brave enough to take risky or adventurous concept decisions.

“That is something that other teams with a lot of experience and confidence like Mercedes can do.

“I am a guy who encourages people to take risks and to protect them when something goes wrong," the German revealed.

“You have to accept that mistakes will happen and while you should try to prevent them in the first place, you should make sure they don’t happen a second time.

“I am not saying it is bad [at the team]. I was really impressed when I started with all the good results this year, how positive the atmosphere was, and how good the momentum was which was there, and it is important now to go in that direction.”