McLaren: ‘We’re not where we want to be’

McLaren are expecting a difficult start to their 2013 season after sporting director Sam Michael admitted they ‘weren’t where they wanted to be’ in terms of performance.

The outfit looked to struggle during both practice sessions as Jenson Button could only finish 11th quickest, whilst team-mate Sergio Perez was 13th. The pair were over two seconds slower than Sebastian Vettel’s chart topping time.

“Definitely, we are not where we need to be at this point in time,” said Michael on Friday in Melbourne.

However he does believe the changes they made over the winter, which involved completely redesigning the car to ensure it has enough development potential throughout the year, will pay off.

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“We made quite a few changes to the car over the winter, and we still believe they will be good for the course of the season.

“The intention was to have a winning car right here in Melbourne. But, even if we don’t, at least over the course of the season it offers a lot more development potential.

“But we are still unoptimised in the areas we need to be, which comes from our own knowledge of where they are not as good as what they should be.

“So we still have some work to do on the car. But it’s a long season.”