Have you ever looked at a painting and the colours have been so bright, the images so vivid, that your eyes seem almost unable to compute what it is you are looking at?

You feel obliged to take a step back in order to truly take it all in.

It is that kind of feeling that walking into the McLaren Technology Centre elicits.

While the UK hub of Formula 1 is based in the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire regions of England, it is Surrey and Woking where McLaren’s commitment to excellence resides.

The McLaren Technology Centre, or MTC for short, took six years to build before being opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004 and for one of the most storied and decorated teams in Formula 1, it signalled the dawn of a new era.

PlanetF1.com was given a behind-the-scenes look of McLaren HQ to get a glimpse behind the curtain of one Formula 1’s most famous names…

The result of their building endeavours was a blend of stainless steel and spotless glass that has been carved to form one half of the yin-yang symbol with the large body of calm water representing the other.

The drive onto the base loops around the lake – which is used to power the wind tunnel, just one of many examples of the team’s ‘no fashion without function’ mantra – before arriving at a reception that has greeted the likes of Prince William and the Princess of Wales in the past.

For a team whose slogan is ‘Fearlessly Forward’, it is clear that the MTC serves as the building block for progress but the…