McLaren are unlikely to be discouraged by horror start in Bahrain

The weekend proved to be a "challenging" one according to team CEO Zak Brown with plenty going wrong for in Sakhir.

Promising starts for the tandem of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri would mean very little as the pair would begin to slide towards the back.

Rookie Piastri would see his debut cut short, retiring with just 13 laps under his belt in the MCL60.

The Australian initially reported an issue with the gearbox which forced him into making a stop to change his steering wheel, but an electrical problem shut down his car in the pits.

Teammate Norris did not fare much better with a pneumatic leak requiring him to pit six times for regular top-ups.

The setback meant he ended the race two laps down in last place to cap off a truly miserable weekend and opening to the campaign for McLaren.

The tough result was expected by McLaren but there were some elements to their performance which were not completely terrible.

McLaren still demonstrated some decent pace which should at least give them some positivity ahead of the big upgrades arriving before race four in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Team principal Andrea Stella said McLaren's showing was "almost beyond expectation" and suggests the upcoming upgrades to the car should lift them through the midfield as a result.

"The race was more encouraging than I would have expected," Stella said. "Before coming here I thought Q3 was difficult, and points would have been difficult, but they were up for grasp more than I thought.

"The other element though we have to acknowledge is the midfield, not only the midfield, but even racing close – apart from Red Bull – close to Aston, Mercedes and even Ferrari. Like without the Virtual Safety Car I'm not sure there would have been people one lap down without issues.

"So I think if we race well, and can improve the car by a few tenths like we plan to do, we can have some enjoyable races soon hopefully."

The mid-season update could inject some more speed into the McLaren and improve reliability down the line.

However, the next issue is the timing - how the rest of the teams around them go about shaving off a few tenths.

Should the likes of Williams, AlphaTauri and Haas make big improvements, that could leave McLaren in a tough spot and make the season even longer.

The year is young, though, and McLaren will undoubtedly be looking to attack it in spite of the less-than-ideal beginning.