McLaren headed into the Monaco Grand Prix weekend filled with confidence that its chassis would propel it toward the front of the grid, with team boss Eric Boullier predicting sixth and eighth on the grid.
Whilst qualifying has yet to happen, Thursday practice left much to be desired as Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso finished tenth and 12th respectively, around two seconds adrift of Daniel Ricciardo's blistering pace.
Although some of that gap is down to McLaren not running the quickest tyre compound, both drivers admitted they lacked grid and balance, but believe it will come to them before Saturday.
"We know this is a good opportunity for us in terms of circuit layout, so we perhaps expected to be a little more competitive in today’s sessions," said Alonso. "On the other hand, we need to stay calm – it’s still only Thursday and there’s a lot of potential in the car to be found by Saturday.
"The balance was not right today: I had quite a bit of understeer so there’s definitely more lap-time to come from us. We’ll see the truth on Saturday, and I’m sure we’ll deliver when it matters."
Button – who escaped a nasty accident during FP1 involving a loose man-hole cover – concurred with Alonso.
"The morning session was tough – we really struggled for grip – but started getting there in the afternoon," he explained.
"The day was made tougher for my side of garage by the drain cover, which came loose and broke through my front wing, front suspension, brake duct and floor. The mechanics did a great job to get the car ready for FP2, but we’ve still got a long way to go until we’re happy with our competitiveness.
"There’s still a big gap to the cars at the front, but we’ll do our best in qualifying and I hope we’ll be more competitive."
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