The world champion secured a surprise third behind Brawn GP pair Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
“I think Malaysia is going to be even harder because the car is incredibly tough to drive at the moment,” he said.
“There probably will be a bigger difference between us and the Brawn car. We’ll be a little further behind.”
After finishing second in the constructors’ championship last year, the Mercedes-powered outfit are off the pace so far this season.
Hamilton admitted that six points was a far-better haul than he had expected to take from the Melbourne circuit.
“Every year gets harder and I would say right now is the biggest challenge for myself, but also for the team,” said the 24-year-old Briton, who had started 18th and last on the grid.
“We’ve had some serious challenges over the last three years, and this is another big one for us, if not the biggest,” he added.
“But like I’ve said from the beginning, if anyone can do it, we can.
“I’ve got a huge amount of belief in this team that we car turn it round, and this is a good foundation for us to work on.”
Both Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen struggled for pace throughout the Melbourne event and it was only a mixture of good fortune (two safety cars and Jarno Trulli’s time penalty), strategy and great driving from Hamilton that saw the team come away with third place.
“We shouldn’t get carried away by our podium in Australia,” said the world champion, who started 18th on the Albert Park grid.
With just a week between the season’s two opening races, McLaren won’t be able to make any large changes to the car, and although there will be several upgrades to existing components, Hamilton fears the Kuala Lumpur circuit will be far from an ideal fit with the Woking team’s machine.
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