"Judge us at the end of the year," says Audi boss following tough debut.

Of course, nobody expected the German team to be challenging for podiums, especially this early on, but Miami appeared to signify a step backwards, what with Nico Hulkenberg failing to start the Sprint and teammate Gabriel Bortoleto subsequently being disqualified. The following day the German retired after just seven laps, though Bortoleto finished twelfth.

It was a baptism of fire for McNish who was in charge for the first time following the departure of Jonathan Wheatley.

On track the German team has confused, though strong on single-lap pace, only once failing to make it out of Q1, with Hulkenberg qualifying eleventh three times and Bortoleto ninth in Japan, the Brazilian has scored the team's only points - two in Melbourne, while both drivers have failed to make it to the race grid once.

Like the majority of their rivals, following the break Audi arrived in Miami with upgrades, but nothing remarkable, McNish insisting that Canada will be different.

"Yeah, we will be," he replied, when asked if there will be an upgrade package in Montreal. "Canada is quite specific, and so is Monaco," he continued.

"In reality, they are pretty specific circuits, the same as Monza is a little bit more related towards Canada, but we do have things.

"We had four upgrades in Miami, some front brake ducts, but small relative to what the majority of the competition had," he explained. "I think we've got to remember as well, this is race four for a new team. Sauber was there before, but it's also the integration of the Audi power unit into that system as well. Therefore, judge us at the end of the year," said the Scot.

Referring specifically to the Miami weekend, he said: "The raw pace of the car was strong, and also, when you talk about Nico, I've got to say, from what he did with the problem to qualify on the edge of Q3 was pretty impressive and it showed his experience.

"Certainly, we know that, like it always is, when you've got a new regulation for a new season and there are bigger gaps, those naturally close down," he added. "So the gaps that we can see, the likes of Williams improved their race performance in Miami, so it is going to get harder and harder.

"It's not as if we can sit on our pace, we have to improve in other areas as well," he admitted. "But ultimately, I think the underlying car performance, chassis performance, is really good."