George Russell admits expectations at Williams are particularly low ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.

The British team had hoped to return from the summer and continue the upward trend shown in the two races prior, however, both Russell and Robert Kubica remained off the pace at the back of the field.

While it might be expected that a circuit like Monza would help Williams due to the lack of downforce needed, last year's F2 champion explained it may well be the opposite.

“It’s probably an even harder weekend than Spa,” he predicted via Motorsport Week.

“Everyone knows we’re struggling with downforce but probably people don’t know we are incredibly slow on the straights.

“We were [losing] up to two seconds on the straight versus the quickest cars, a second slower on the straights versus anyone else, so it was incredibly difficult for us.

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“It was clear after Hungary we had a very good performance but a lot of that was down to the straights, the deficit didn’t seem as great.

“This is probably going to be the toughest one of the year.”

The possbility of rain might just be welcome then to act as an equaliser and Russell insists the Italian weekend won't be a write-off.

“You can always learn something from everywhere you go,” he said.

“Last weekend was tough for us, we still learned a lot from the race, tyre degradation, difference between the Medium and Soft, the C3 and C2.

“Like I said, you’re always learning stuff and no lap is wasted.”