No matter how good it is, the motoring press will use phrases such as "lacks passion/soul", "amazingly accomplished but perhaps a little boring" etc. In contrast the Ferrari in the test will have "passion/soul" and be "thrilling". Any Porsche will be "brilliant". The motoring press don't like McLaren - my guess is that they don't like Ron Dennis. They're also scared of Ferrari - the company that will refuse to provide a car to any magazine that dares to write a bad thing about them.
I'm not so keen on the front end of this as those on their previous versions. It just looks like it's trying too hard to "not dull".
So far, McLaren have produced a handful of models, including the F1, and none of them has been a bad car as far as I can tell. Quite remarkable really.