Fixing McLaren's early problems in 2022 is a "test" after three years in the "sun", team boss Andreas Seidl suggests.
The Woking-based team has found itself firmly on the back foot at the start of Formula 1's new regulatory era as brake issues and a positive Covid-19 test for Daniel Ricciardo disrupted their second pre-season test.
Then, when the other teams unleashed their true pace at the season-opener, McLaren was way down the pecking order.
“We just don’t have enough performance," Seidl admitted to Motorsport-Magazin.com.
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“There is no specific source of error. The car works and we have a good basis, but we simply lack the grip.
“I’m not expecting a miracle. It’s not that easy to get to the level of our competitors. It will take time and we have to be patient.”
The German though does believe a return to tougher times is a good opportunity to see how McLaren has improved in recent years when they were leading the midfield.
“We know that we have fundamental problems with the performance of our car. That’s our focus at the moment," he conceded.
“Development has been very good over the past three years. The sun has been shining on the team all the time. Now, this is the test for us as to whether we can deal with such a situation.
“We are fully focused on getting as much performance as possible out of the MCL36.
“We continue with all the upgrades that were already planned in advance, this way we can possibly achieve short-term improvements. At the same time, we are making a major analysis of our entire aerodynamic concept.”
A small ray of hope came in Saudi Arabia as Lando Norris scored the team's first points of 2022 in P7, but McLaren put that down to circuit characteristics rather than an immediate turnaround.
“The car is in exactly the same position as Bahrain, that’s the problem," Norris explained.
Points on the board. 👏 pic.twitter.com/lik6ZDI441
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) March 27, 2022
“If we went back to Bahrain, we’d still be out in Q1 and we’d be fighting for 16th and 17th like we were.
“It’s just this track suits our car a lot more, suits the medium and high-speed, but it’s just a difference – the car is literally exactly the same.
“I guess we know a little bit more of where our strengths are, but our weaknesses are the slow-speed corners and we are a very long way off still at the moment.”
