Considered the Formula One team to watch this season, McLaren lived up to their billing at Australian Grand Prix practice in Melbourne on Friday – for all the wrong reasons.

Rather than cause headaches for rivals, McLaren have plenty of their own to nurse before Sunday’s season opener at Albert Park after underwhelming practice results by former world champion Jenson Button and new teammate Sergio Perez.

Life after Lewis Hamilton – who sensationally switched to Mercedes – began with a whimper for McLaren as Button finished ninth and 11th fastest respectively in Friday’s two sessions, while Perez was 11th and 13th.

In the second session, Button was more than two seconds behind pace setter Sebastian Vettel.

“I can’t recall a harder day,” McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said.

“It would be hard to summarise the day but we were lacking in overall grip and consistency. There was some understeer – it was a very difficult day.

“And we didn’t go forward at all today which is a bit of a concern.

“But we have plenty of data which we will be working long and hard on tonight which hopefully gives us a base to improve on tomorrow.”

McLaren finished last season as one of the fastest but still felt compelled to tinker with their car ahead of 2013.

But perhaps the biggest changes happened off the track – besides former world champion Hamilton’s move, McLaren announced just last month that their technical director Paddy Lowe would not travel with the team to Australia and would be joining Mercedes at the end of the year.

Still they were expected to be a force at Melbourne.

Whitmarsh was making no excuses.

“Paddy was with us through to the launch of the car so I don’t think that made an impact,” he said of their disappointing practice form.

“We consciously made a lot of changes on the car running into this season and, at the moment, we don’t fully understand how to get the best out of this car.

“We are doing it pretty tough at the moment but we have a strong team and we will find a way through.”

As tough as it was to admit, Whitmarsh said McLaren were ready to endure short-term pain for some long-term gain.

“Undoubtedly if we took last year’s car, we would have been quicker today,” he said.

“But would it have the same development potential (as their current set-up)?

“We wanted to have the ability to develop the car between now and the end of this season.

“There’s a degree of risk in that but that’s the judgment we made.”