McLaren insists there is a lot more potential to unlock from its car over the coming races, with updates planned for every round.
The team got the season off to a mixed start in Australia, showing improved pace compared to last year but failing to score a point after Fernando Alonso suffered a big crash and an unfavourable strategy left Jenson Button outside the points. Nevertheless, McLaren racing director Eric Boullier believes the new MP4-31 has yet to show its true potential.
"We're certainly hoping for a less dramatic race in Bahrain, and will be aiming to build on the promising initial data we've collected from our car, which shows a definite improvement in pace from last year's package," he said. "There's still much more potential to unlock and performance to find, but the encouraging leap made from testing to Melbourne has shown what's possible, and we will keep pushing to improve our pace and develop our strengths by continuing to bring updates to the car at every race."
Button also took positives from Australia, but is expecting Honda's power unit to struggle against its rivals on Bahrain's long straights.
"I'm really keen to get back behind the wheel, as, although it didn't show in our results from Australia, our package felt very good to drive and the team worked really hard to bring a step forward in driveability from testing to the first race," Button said. "Bahrain is definitely a tricky track for us as it's high-speed, but we have a solid platform and improved deployment, so there are some positives to look forward to."