Jonathan Neale, McLaren’s managing director, has likened the British team’s problems in 2013 with rival Ferrari’s early troubles a year ago.
He told reporters the main issue with the uncompetitive MP4-28 has been the correlation of information between the wind tunnel and the track.
"I’m sure," said Neale, "if we sat down and had a quiet conversation with our colleagues in Italy and said ’how did the first quarter of last season feel for you?’, they would understand with some clarity what we’re going through at the moment."
"We are essentially trying to sort out a correlation issue. It’s really important that we sort out the issues with the car and the correlation. All of the time you’ve got that lingering doubt of ’hang on a second, what went went wrong, where did it go wrong and how do we fix it?’, you’ve got the opportunity for it to arise again."
McLaren is unveiling a big package of upgrades this weekend in Barcelona, but Neale is keen to play down expectations.
"Setting ourselves up for a blow on the chin from you (reporters) isn’t very funny," he said.