George Russell has admitted Williams face an “extremely difficult” task just to catch the midfield during the 2019 season.
Hopes that the British team might rebound from their 2018 struggles were quickly ended as Williams failed to make the start of pre-season testing and effectively, only began serious running in the second week.
Combine that with another poorly designed car and the once-great outfit has spent the first three races circulating at the back, only gaining places via retirements.
“From my side, driving the car, I’m trying to direct the team in the right place,” Russell explained to Autosport.
“Now I just have to believe in the team to do their thing: the designers, the aerodynamicists, to go out and try to achieve something.
“Everybody’s working as fast as they can to try to improve.”
The problem Williams has is their platform sees them over a second per lap slower than the rest in qualifying although do close that gap in the race.
Therefore, to simply challenge for 18th on pure pace will require a Herculean effort.
“In Formula 1, everybody improves. We’ve not only got to improve but we’ve got to improve at double or triple the rate of everyone else, which in reality is extremely difficult,” the Briton continued.
“We’ve got to stay positive but we’ve also got to be realistic. We can’t be aiming for much more than we’re achieving at the moment.
“In Formula 1 everybody is developing and we’ve got to find a certain magic to try to overcome that.”
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Russell then revealed what the main areas are where the Williams car is struggling the most.
“Right now, Robert and I are having big problems with how the car behaves at the corner entry and in the middle of the curve compared to the exit,” he said to Motorsport-Total.
“It’s very different in every area, which makes driving so difficult.
“There will be upgrades, just like any team,” he noted but warned: “It’s not like we have something special.”