Lewis Hamilton concedes it is "back to the drawing board" for McLaren after their Bahrain woes, but the former World Champ is confident they can "fix" their problems.
After Hamilton qualified P2 at the Sakhir circuit with team-mate Jenson Button starting in P4, many expected McLaren to be fighting for victory come the Sunday.
The team, though, struggled not only for pace during the race with both their drivers going backwards, but also endured a torrid time during the pit stops. Two bungled stops saw Hamilton eventually finish eighth while Button had to retire on the penultimate lap.
The Woking squad now have nearly three weeks to sort out their problems ahead of the race in Barcelona and, although he is disappointed with their display in Bahrain, Hamilton is confident they can come up with answers.
"I struggled with pace, with Sebastian (Vettel) pulling away at a second a lap, struggled with looking after the tyres. I just wasn't quick at all," he said.
"I still think I could have got fourth or fifth, but to end up eighth after two poor pit stops is disappointing.
"The only positive is that I scored four points, but overall there aren't a lot of positives to take. We have to go back to the drawing board and try and figure out where we are losing time, because we are quick in qualifying. But something changes in the race, so we have to go back and work harder at the factory, and if anyone can fix it, it's us.
"I'm sure everyone's frustrated, so we have to look on the bright side and keep positive."
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh is also confident that they can bounce back, but concedes "there's no magic".
"You have bad days and Sunday was one of them," he said. "But we're a strong team, we've come back from these things plenty of times before.
"We have to focus on and understand what we did wrong, how we weren't performing, because clearly we're doing something wrong.
"If you look at our pace in the race compared to that on Friday, we were a second slower. We're capable of doing that because we've good people, capable of recovering the situation, but there's no magic."
