The privateer German squad, a staple of the GTE Am class, only received its Porsche 963 LMDh one week before the fifth round of the WEC following a shakedown at Weissach in the hands of Kevin Estre.
It had no opportunity to test the chassis prior to practice commencing on Friday.
Tincknell, who shares the car with Gianmaria Bruni and Neel Jani, explained that "every lap is a learning lap" for Proton as it seeks to catch its rivals.
He qualified 12th in the 13-car Hypercar field on Saturday, 1.3s down on polesitter Kamui Kobayashi's Toyota, after a set-up choice "didn’t really work" and meant he "lost a bit of balance".
"It’s quite nice being underdogs, no-one really expects anything of you," he told Autosport.
"Actually you’re the ones who have to grind, working twice as hard because we’ve got so much catching up to do.
"But that’s quite a nice position to be in if you’re willing to do it. I think ultimately we’ve seen that the package is getting closer."
The two-time Le Mans 24 Hours class-winner, who is contracted to Porsche's technical partner Multimatic, explained that Proton is running "a very skeleton crew" for its maiden prototype outing with "probably two or three staff less than what we will be" and also currently lacks certain parts.
Source: Autosport