 The suspension set up of the new car was virtually identical to the MP4/2C

To many, the MP4/3 seemed to have been designed along the lines of the lowline Brabham BT55 used by the Brabham team in .Brabham's long time designer Gordon Murray had joined McLaren in 1987 as its new Technical Director taking over from Barnard and this led to the popular belief that he had played a major role in the design of the new look McLaren.However, team manager Jo Ramírez downplayed Murray's involvement in the design of the MP4/3, saying that the BT55's design had no bearing on the car and that Murray had primarily been in charge of quality control.