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Lando Norris said McLaren were "already a little bit behind" after Friday practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri are under pressure from Red Bull's Max Verstappen after a strong run of races for the Dutchman - and the four-time champion topped Friday practice at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Verstappen, 40 points off championship leader Piastri after a run of three wins and a second place in the past four races, set the pace, leading Ferrari's Charles Leclerc by 0.153 seconds.
Norris was fourth fastest, while Piastri, 14 points ahead of the Briton, was down in 12th.
Norris, one of nine drivers to miss the first session while handing his car over to a rookie, said: "We're in a reasonable place, for sure.
"I got up to speed quite quickly, I was quite surprised. I found the limit quickly... but I found the limit quite quickly, which is just holding us back a bit.
"Not that it was a bad day, but normally we're very good on a Friday and then everyone catches up on Saturday.
"We are already a little bit behind so we have definitely some work to do tonight. The balance is a bit all over the place, same as the last few weeks. Single-lap stuff we're struggling a bit at the minute."
However, although Verstappen was quickest overall, he was also dissatisfied with his day, saying he was struggling for pace on the race-simulation runs later in the session.
"The short run on the soft (tyre) we managed to do a good lap," said Verstappen, who has a new floor fitted to his Red Bull as the team chase every last bit of performance. "The rest, everything else was pretty bad.
"On the medium [tyre], the short run was not great and the big problem was the long run, where we seemed to struggle a lot. That is a big concern for the race.
"The balance wasn't even off. There was just no grip. That is the bigger concern. So, as soon as you go into a sustainable run, the tyres are going hot, we were nowhere, so that is a tough one to sort out, but we'll see."
When it was pointed out to him that his consolation was that single-lap pace should put him in a good position for qualifying, Verstappen shot back: "Yeah, but you are not going to win the race like that.
"You can be fast over one lap and if you have zero pace in the race then it is going to be very tough. I prefer to be fast in the race and not so fast over one lap."
Despite Norris' concerns over McLaren's one-lap pace, his long run impressed onlookers.
Leclerc's engineer Bryan Bozzi said over team radio that Norris looked "very fast" on the long run, which McLaren did on the soft tyre rather than the medium used by the other front-runners, rendering comparisons difficult.
And Mercedes driver George Russell, sixth fastest with team-mate Kimi Antonelli third, said: "Lando looked very quick on his long run, which has obviously been the theme. But qualifying is so important. It will be close between the top eight cars."
Piastri, who has had a difficult run of races since winning in Zandvoort at the end of August, explained his 12th place overall by saying his "lap on the soft on low fuel was pretty average so I'm not surprised with the lap time".
But asked if he felt McLaren could be a match for Red Bull in Mexico, he said: "I think so, yeah. It is going to be tight but I think we have a good car underneath us."
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton was fifth fastest, ahead of Russell, the Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda and Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin. Williams driver Carlos Sainz and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll completed the top 10.
There were no major incidents, although Williams driver Alex Albon ended up 19th overall after brushing the wall on the exit of the final corner on his qualifying simulation lap.
Among the rookie drivers in the first session, Red Bull's Arvid Lindblad impressed, ending up two places and 0.093secs ahead of Tsunoda.
The Briton is expected to get one of the two Racing Bulls seats next year with Isack Hadjar likely to move up to the senior team alongside Verstappen - although Red Bull have not yet formally confirmed their driver choices for 2026.
