SportPesa Racing Point technical director Andy Green says the team's position "in the wrong part of the grid" on Sunday has made for some challenging last few races.
The Silverstone-based squad has only scored a single top-ten finish - Lance Stroll's P9 in Canada - in the last five races, a deficit that has left Racing Point in seventh position in the Constructors' standings.
Austria was another case where the team's struggles on race day were rooted in its poor qualifying performance on Saturday, when both Sergio Perez or Stroll failed to make it into Q2.
The Mexican finished just outside the points at the Red Bull Ring while his teammate ended his afternoon P14.
"In the end we weren't quick enough, as simple as that," Green told Motorsport.com.
"We underperformed in qualifying, so we were in the wrong part of the grid, and once you're there, it's so difficult to do anything.
"We'll pick ourselves up and go to the next one. We know that there are improvements coming. You can see in the last few performances, we're definitely making inroads."
Racing Point team principal Otmar Szafnauer recently indicated that the team's development programme was unfolding at a normal pace. Green confirmed however that a major update was scheduled before F1's summer break.
"There are a few little aero bits at Silverstone, and we'll keep them coming," said Green.
"It's a case of starting to look in a different direction. So there's a small update at Silverstone, and the bigger ones are later, Germany/Hungary time. Silverstone is a small step towards that."
©RacingPoint
Szafnauer believes just a little improvement would go a long way towards allowing Racing Point to consistently battle with its mid-field rivals.
"It's just a matter of them getting us due to qualifying," the American said after Austria.
"We had good starts and were able to catch them, but when the race pace is the same, you can't overtake.
"It is a positive that we can race with the Renaults now, although Alfa Romeo beat us, it was very, very close. So just a little bit of improvement on our part, and we'll get it."
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