McLaren's Lewis Hamilton has warned his team must get qualifying right for this weekend's Australian Grand Prix.
The Briton finished the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix in third, but had been 1.1 seconds off pole position.
"The most important part for us is to understand how to get the most out of the car on that single lap," he said.
Hamilton, the 2008 world champion, said the team "are definitely a step ahead" of where they were in Bahrain for this weekend's race in Melbnourne.
Hamilton and team-mate Jenson Button have been working in the McLaren simulator in an attempt to extract the most out of the Mercedes-powered MP4-25 for Saturday's qualifying session at the Albert Park circuit.
With refuelling banned from Formula 1, opportunities to gain positions on pit-stop strategy have become more limited, making qualifying all the more important.
"Our race pace isn't too bad and the car felt pretty good in the race [in Bahrain]," said Hamilton. "But our qualifying position has even more of an impact than it did in the past.
"Our qualifying pace definitely appears to be quite a bit off - definitely off the Red Bulls.
"I don't know where they found that time. If you look at [Sebastian] Vettel's lap, it was so much faster in the middle sector.
"As we go into the season we'll start to highlight where we're losing bits of time but in the race when the car's heavier, it is more balanced out. It's also how you use your tyres, but it's difficult to say why the pace wasn't closer."
Reigning world champion Button, who joined McLaren this season, finished seventh in Bahrain after only just making it into the crucial top-10 qualifying shootout.
"It's something we're still trying to figure out," said the 30-year-old, who clinched victory in last year's season-opening race in Melbourne.
"Maybe we concentrated too much on the race in Bahrain, but that's not all of it.
"With our downforce level we couldn't get the best out of the car in qualifying, though we could get the tyres in the right working range. The balance was much better in the race, so it's a big margin in qualifying.
"If you compare Lewis to Sebastian, it was 1.1 seconds and that shocked us. I think we'll be a lot more competitive here, and in the simulator we looked reasonable, so I'm looking forward to driving here.
"I think everyone will be working on qualifying - I don't think we concentrated on it enough in the last race."
Melbourne will be McLaren's first race since modifying their rear diffuser after the sport's governing body, the FIA, deemed the design was against the spirit of the rules following the Bahrain Grand Prix.
McLaren, along with Mercedes, had developed wider holes to allow access to the starter motor, which also gave the car an extra aerodynamic advantage.
But the FIA's decision has forced both teams to scrap their designs at Albert Park.
However, McLaren's principal race engineer Phil Prew said the modifications to the MP4-25 were small and would not have any significant impact on performance.
"It certainly won't be better, but we're not anticipating any real loss of performance with that," he said.
"We're hoping in terms on one-lap performance in qualifying we're able to find a slightly better balance than we had in Bahrain.
"We're hopeful that we can have a better showing in qualifying which, as was clear to see, one of our weaknesses."
Hamilton was disqualified from last year's Australian Grand Prix when he was found guilty of lying to race stewards in an attempt to have rival Jarno Trulli penalised.
However, the 25-year-old said his experiences from the resulting controversy have helped galvanised his resolve.
"I'm just maturing and learning and perhaps making better decisions, and a little bit wiser than I was then," he said. "You just continue to grow and to learn.
"I'm proud that I can say that I'm a friend of Nelson Mandela and every time I see him he says he's still learning, so I've still got a lot of learning to do."
Hamilton - who won the 2008 race at Albert Park - said he has also drawn strength from the start of last year, when McLaren started the season with an uncompetitive car.
"Last year was a long, long struggle but I was able to work on different sides of my driving," he said.
"When I was at the back I had more time to focus on other areas, and when I got to the front I felt that I was stronger and I ended up on a high, and I think I rolled that into this year.
By Adam Feneley
Motorsport Engineering
www.motorsportengineering.blogspot.com
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