McLaren chief Zak Brown sent a concerning message when he admitted during pre-season testing: "We set some goals for development, which we didn't hit."
All 10 teams are in the thick of their preparation work ahead of the new season, which kicks off with the Bahrain Grand Prix next weekend. It remains far too early to draw any concrete conclusions about where each teams stands, but there are some early concerns for McLaren.
Their running on Thursday was limited a little by some teething problems on the MCL60. And then, when Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were able to take it out for a spin, the lap times they were setting were not exactly inspiring much confidence.
There could, of course, be an element of sandbagging playing a part in that – and testing times should always be taken with a bucket full of salt. But even chief executive Brown has admitted that McLaren are not quite where they wanted to be.
He told reporters: "It's hard to know until we get going. We know we set some goals for development, which we didn't hit, and we felt it was better to be honest about that.
"Like everyone, we have a lot of development coming. So, we are encouraged by what we see around the corner. I think we will be going into the first race off of our projected targets, but it is hard to really know where that means we will be on the grid."
McLaren are fully aware that there could be some especially stern competition in the midfield this year. Alpine finished ahead of them last year and appear confident that they have another strong car, while Aston Martin are bullish about their chances.
In order to see off those challenges, Brown knows that his team will have to close any performance gap quickly and nail their car development as the season progresses. He added: "Our aspirations are to get back to the front.
"We know that will take a little bit more time. All the technology infrastructure is either in or going to be pretty much completed this year. So that's quite exciting. We have some good developments coming, but so does every other single team in F1. We need to pick up the pace."
