Rock-Bottom McLaren Vow to 'Climb Mountain'

British Formula One giants McLaren face the indignity of both their cars starting from the back row of the race grid in the Australian Grand Prix after a horror qualifying session Saturday.

Three-time race winner Jenson Button finished 17th, one spot ahead of Danish team-mate Kevin Magnussen, in McLaren's lowest positions in qualifying since Malaysia 2010. (Hamilton on Pole)

With the non-participation of the troubled new Manor team's two cars, McLaren will have the whole field starting ahead of them, reflecting their chaotic start to the new season after troubled pre-season testing.

For a proud team that has won 182 races, 12 drivers' championships and eight constructors' championships, it doesn't sit well with McLaren.

"McLaren exists to win," McLaren-Honda racing director Eric Boullier said. "I need hardly say that everyone at McLaren-Honda is enormously dissatisfied with today's qualifying result.

"We've got a mountain to climb, but all I can say is: climb that mountain we certainly will."

Button, who won around the Albert Park street circuit in 2009, 2010, 2012, said the performance did not come as a surprise after a trouble-plagued winter testing.

"This level of performance wasn't a surprise for us. We knew from winter testing that the pace wasn't there, so we knew we weren't going to be competitive here," Button said.

"It's going to be a really difficult race for us -- we haven't done a race distance yet, and my longest run is 12 laps -- but we want to do the best we can because there's so much learning to be had.

"It'll be a tough day, but we'll be doing our absolute best."

It has been a demoralising start to the new season for McLaren, who are without two-time world champion Fernando Alonso for the season-opener after he suffered concussion in a pre-season crash in Spain.

McLaren finished behind the field in terms of kilometres and laps covered in pre-season testing following the team's switch to Honda power units for this season.

Button, who joined McLaren in 2010, said they were a year behind in development of the complicated system compared to the Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault engines.