I would be fine with "fake" McLaren if they can't afford it - name it "LarenMc" or whatever.
"A car inspired by legendary McLaren MP4/4 with very similar specs and body(shape some details differently)"
Would that be fine licensing wise ? Would that fall into "grey area" ?
Pretty sure McLaren would be on the phone rather quickly. I have a feeling the reason those 'F1' cars from GT3 disappeared were because they were basically straight up copies of real cars with fake names and Formula 1 Management/Manufacturers were not impressed.