McLaren unsure of place in 2019 F1 pecking order

McLaren sporting director Gil de Ferran says it is too early to say where McLaren sits versus their rivals ahead of the season-opening race in Melbourne.

The McLaren boss said he would not make a prediction as to whereabouts McLaren was compared to the other teams but did say that the team accomplished everything they set out to test during the winter testing period.

“From a competitive perspective, it’s difficult to gauge exactly where we are," he told media after testing.

"People are doing different things all the time – at different times of the day, with different fuel loads and tyres, so it’s hard to confidently be precise about where we rank compared to the rest of the field.

"We came to testing with a few goals in mind – to do a lot of laps to ensure reliability and sign off systems, to understand our new car and the new Pirelli tyres, and perhaps most importantly, to integrate our new drivers into the team and prepare them as best we can for the season ahead.

"I think we’ve accomplished all of these things satisfactorily.”

McLaren will enter the 2019 season with an all-new driver line-up in the form of Carlos Sainz and rookie Lando Norris.