Lando and Oscar couldn’t help but smile as they were greeted by two fans from opposite generations on Thursday morning in Japan, an older supporter and a very young fan. Stopping for chats and photos along the way, the pair arrived at Suzuka in a positive mood, hopeful for what’s to come.

After a week back at the factory, where they spent time reflecting on the opening two rounds, logging hours on the simulator, and catching up with our Woking-based team, they arrived at Suzuka refreshed and confident about the road ahead.

While a frustrating first two rounds of the season haven’t delivered the points we’d have hoped for at the start of this new era, there remains reason for optimism.

Oscar was forced out of the opener, and in China both cars failed to start the Grand Prix, our first double DNS in more than 20 years, after separate electrical issues on the power unit side. However, their encouraging pace in China’s Sprint Qualifying showed promise, and there’s a strong belief within the team that a car capable of challenging the top three will come in time.

“Of course, it hurt us as a team… But we’ve worked hard to figure things out, to understand how it happened, and why it happened,” explained Lando, when asked for his thoughts on last weekend’s DNS in China. “We are doing everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again – you live, and you learn.

“It was a tough one for us all. No one wants to have a weekend like that, but I’ve heard a lot from the team about how they’re feeling ahead of this weekend’s race and what [actions] they’re [taking].

“We’re not where we want to be, but within the team, we all know what we can do. And now is as good a time as any to prove exactly what we can do as a team against Ferrari, and against Mercedes, who are performing very well at the moment. I know the boys and girls back in the factory are working very hard.”

Oscar added: “It’s not been the most ideal start for sure, but all you can do is look at what’s coming in the future. There’s certainly no point dwelling on it, there wasn’t anything we could have done, and we’ve now got a race this weekend where we want to try and do better.

“We’ve got plenty to focus on apart from a couple of bad races, and that’s what we’re putting our energy into. A lot of the things we can control have gone well so far, such as Qualifying, considering where we stand at the moment.

“We knew it was going to be a massive reset of everything… and we’re still towards the front. Is it where we want to be? No. But we’re understanding more and more all the time about how we can improve across so many different areas. That’s the biggest thing, it isn’t like we have this one massive problem that we need to fix, there are a lot of areas where we can make small changes, and those can add up pretty quickly.”

There’s always been total faith in the team during their time at McLaren Mastercard, but there’s now also recent history to back it up, having gone from the back of the grid to the front in just two seasons under the previous regulations.

Back at the factory, upgrades are being developed for both the mid- to long-term, and both drivers were keen to emphasise the importance of patience in the short term, allowing the time and space needed to get things right.

“We've got some good ideas on how we want to improve going forward,” Oscar continued. “It’s obviously going to take time, but we’re all confident in what we can achieve. We’ve all had that taste of success now, and we want to get back to it.

“It’s going to take everyone on the grid a bit more time to fully understand these new cars, but hopefully we can come out of the upcoming break a bit faster than we’re going into it.”

Lando added: “There's good progress happening. It takes time to improve certain things, and it’s not like we’re bad - we’re still the third-best team at the moment, but we certainly enjoy being first a lot more than third. Time will tell, but we’ve got things in the pipeline, and everyone is working hard. We’re ambitious and want to return to the top.

“We’re confident as a team, and we believe in ourselves. We’ve won the last two Constructors’ Championships, we won the Drivers’ last year, because we were able to build the best car on the grid, and I am confident we can get back to doing that this year. It just takes time. You have to be patient, but I have belief in the team, and I do think we can have the best car this year.”

Follow all of the action this weekend via the McLaren Racing App, available to download on Android and iOS.