Williams rookie George Russell says the British team's performance could remain depressed for months because of a "fundamental" problem impacting its FW42.
The Grove-based outfit would be hard pressed to find even a glimmer of a silver lining in its sobbing state of affairs.
After enduring perhaps the worst campaign in its modern history in 2018, Williams was determined to start afresh this season but so far it's been anything but clear sailing.
The team's belated start to pre-season testing following a delay in the build-up process of its 2019 contender led to an internal crisis, with technical director Paddy Lowe taking a 'leave of absence', the duration of which could be prolonged indefinitely.
Once rolled out, the Williams FW42 was slow on a relative basis, its drivers lingering at the bottom of the timesheets in winter testing, and also this weekend in Melbourne.
And Russell's comments after qualifying offered little hope of improvement in the short term, the Brit revealing that Williams had uncovered an important issue embedded in the design of its FW42.
"There is one fundamental which I don't want to discuss publicly," said the 21-year-old rookie.
"We understand what that is, but it doesn't mean we can wake up on Monday morning and rectify it.
"To change something so fundamental will take months of development, work in the simulator and designers working out how to do it, and that is what needs to be done at the moment.
"Unfortunately we are looking at a number of races before we are going to be able to fight, and that is just where we are at the moment."
©RedBull
Russell would not offer any insight into the nature of the prevailing "problem" affecting the FW42 chassis.
But Robert Kubica concurred with his young team mate, although the Pole wouldn't put a time frame on finding a fix for the FW42's issue.
"I don’t want to put numbers because last year I think we knew even earlier what was the fundamental problem of the car and for the whole year it stayed more or less the same," said the F1 returnee.
"I hope it will take only two or three months but I cannot say, I don’t know."
Despite the woes and negative outlook, Russell, armed with the energy of his youth, is determined to make the best of his challenging job as he demonstrated in qualifying on Saturday.
"I enjoyed it. Obviously I would have liked to have been there a bit longer but we know the pace of the car and my job is to go out there and drive the package we’ve got as fast as possible," he told Sky F1.
"I really believe we did that. The three laps I put together were really good, I felt. I crossed the line with a smile on my face."
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
