Sergio Perez concedes his Force India team has likely slipped down from their position as the fourth best team based on testing so far.
The Silverstone-based team dominated the midfield battle in 2017, having both cars in the points at 16 of the 20 races as they finished 'best of the rest' by over 100 points from Williams.
However, after only running one day last week and having seen the potential from the likes of Renault, McLaren and Toro Rosso, the Mexican knows there is a lot of work to be done.
"I think we definitely need a good step for the first race and hopefully that will come and we can be competitive from then onwards," he said in Barcelona on Tuesday.
"Right now it's hard to judge where we are, certainly I don't think we are leading the mid-pack at the moment, but I certainly always say it doesn't matter where we start, it's where you are in Abu Dhabi."
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Perez also doubts too much can be read into the times so far in testing, particularly as teams, including Force India, will be bringing upgrades for the start of the season anyway.
"I think what we are experiencing these days is probably irrelevant because once we go to race weekends track temperatures are going to be quite different to what we've had so far," he claimed.
"I'm very hopeful of what we are going to have for Melbourne. It's too early to be disappointed or happy. We have to keep our heads down and work."
