George Russell says Williams has a “fundamental” problem with its FW42 that will take months to address, ostensibly consigning the team to the rear of the Formula 1 grid.
Williams, last in the 2018 standings, has endured a dreadful Australian Grand Prix weekend, with Russell and team-mate Robert Kubica firmly at the back in each session.
Russell qualified in 19th spot and faced a 1.3s deficit to nearest rival Carlos Sainz Jr., while Kubica was a further 1.7s back after enduring a scruffy session.
Russell declared himself “very satisfied” on a personal level but revealed that Williams is facing a sustained period of struggle before it can hope for an improvement.
Williams is the only team that has not improved on its best time year-on-year at Albert Park.
“I mean simply it is just overall downforce…there is one fundamental which I don’t want to discuss publicly,” said Russell on Williams’ deficit.
“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 and work in the simulator, the designers working out how to do it, but that’s what needs to be done at the moment.
“Unfortunately we’re looking at a number of races before we’re going to be able to fight. That’s just where we are at the moment.
“I think once we’ve solved that fundamental there’ll be a big leap [in performance]; we’ll probably still be at the back of the grid but with a chance to fight.
“At the moment the fact is we don’t really have any hope because we’re too far behind.”
Russell accepted that his first Grand Prix is likely to be an extended test session in order to assist Williams’ bid to further understand its FW42.
“Obviously this is the first race and the main job now is to really help the team understand the weaknesses and how to go forward,” he said.
“I’ve got no interest in fighting Robert for 19th place; we want to work together to push the team forward.”
Kubica believes it will be optimistic to expect a drastic revolution within only a few months.
“I don’t want to put numbers on it, because last year we knew early on what was the fundamental problem with the car and for the whole year it stayed more or less the same,” he said.
“I think we have a much clearer picture of the car and also, today, it was a kind of testing as well, because we were not fighting for anything it was an opportunity for us to test things, which normally you’d be focusing more on the route you know.
“Because we missed quite a lot of Barcelona running, it’s kind of normal that when the car runs, it’s not running in the way it should run, so we’re mixing a bit of ideas.
“We’re, George and I, in line with the feeling we have for the car, where we have to work but, probably because I’m more experienced, I would never say it will take two or three months to fix. For now, no one knows. I hope it will take only two or three months but, as I said, I cannot say it.”
