Having emerged from the first pre-season test at Barcelona looking to be Ferrari’s main rival, it then endured a challenging few weeks in the Middle East.
A disastrous Bahrain test, triggered by unexpected brake problems, was followed by an equally miserable season opener when it failed to score any points.
From high hopes of it building on its best-of-the-rest tag in 2021, suddenly the season looked like it was going to be a difficult one for the Woking-based squad.
Signs of progress in Saudi Arabia, and even better form in Australia with a double-points haul for Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, were put down to the tracks being better suited to the MCL36.
But then at Imola, a circuit where the team had done well last year, Norris delivered it a podium finish as the squad’s campaign was injected with a lot more optimism.
With such a rollercoaster of lows and highs, it has been hard to get an understanding of where the real McLaren form stacks up – and how much of its form has been down to more favourable circuits, and how much down to the package.
But for McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl, the feeling within the squad is that actually the recent pace is the more realistic picture – and it is the Bahrain slump that is the standout from the norm.
“My assessment is that if you look back on how everything went from the first test onwards in Barcelona, then I think we had a decent test in Barcelona, with a car that was fundamentally working,” he explained.
“Then obviously we experienced this big setback, losing all these laps in the Bahrain test, which then ended up I think in consequences for the Bahrain race weekend. That was because of a compromised solution for the brakes, but also because of losing all those laps and the ideal preparation to get the season started in a completely new car.
“With having the race at the same venue where the test happened, everyone gained so much experience and I think it made us look definitely worse than we…
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