Lewis Hamilton has admitted he is not too disappointed that the 2011 season will begin two weeks later than originally scheduled.
The early life of McLaren’s radical 2011 car, the MP4-26, has been troubled, after it debuted one test late and has so far made little impression in the reliability and performance stakes.
"We are trying to understand how the car, the tyres and all the systems work together," 2008 world champion Hamilton is quoted by Turun Sanomat.
"We are not yet in the position to do 140 laps a day, like Webber did," he added.
On Monday, it was finally confirmed officially that the Bahrain grand prix has been postponed until later this season due to the political situation in the island Kingdom.
"I am not too unhappy about the world championship only starting in Australia, because it gives us more time," said Briton Hamilton.
"We have some catching up to do and not a lot of time until the season starts," he added.
A major shareholding of Woking based McLaren is held by the Bahrain government’s Mumtalakat company.