Jenson Button says McLaren need rivals to take points off each other as the Woking team searches for a solution to their MP4-28's problems.
The team's campaign got off to a slow start in Australia with Jenson Button finishing down in eighth place while his new team-mate Sergio Perez failed to score.
Such are McLaren's woes that there have even been suggestions that they could revert to last year's car. That move, though, would be a last resort.
"It's better to stick to the plan in terms of developing what we have to improve what we have - that's always the way forward," Button told Sky Sports News.
"We don't know what the future holds. At the moment we've got a car and we're trying to make the best of what we have.
"McLaren is a front-running team and they know how to develop cars.
"Developing this, we're obviously not where we would like to be, but we do know the curve of improvements hopefully will be far greater than what other people can find. Well, it needs to be!"
And while McLaren work on developing the car, Button is hoping the start of this season will produce many winners like last year did to give him a chance to catch up later in the season.
"One person can't dominate for us. I'm already 23 points behind the leader so we need different winners every race.
"But even so, if we're picking up one or two points [per race], it's still very difficult."
