Gene Haas has described the gap between the top three teams and the chasing midfield "depressing", admitting that his team is unsure how the deficit can be surmounted.
Although the Haas team is competing in only its second season, it finds itself battling the likes of Toro Rosso, Williams and Force India for the 'best of the rest' crown behind the leading outfits, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.
But that isn't enough for Haas, who says the two-tier competition is an issue which he and the team have no answer to overcoming.
"I think we have two good drivers right now, they’ve both scored points, the car’s very good," Haas told Motorsport.
"But the real cloud that hangs over us is the fact we’re one to two seconds off the fastest cars and quite frankly we don’t understand how we can be that far off with what we consider to be state-of-the-art equipment.
"Other than the top three teams, everybody’s in that boat. That to me is probably the biggest problem that I see right now, that the top three teams are light years ahead of everybody else.
"How do we overcome that? Quite frankly there’s no answer to that, which is really depressing."
Haas added that the substantial gap between the top and midfield means an underdog winning a race is never likely to happen.
“The reality of it is, that outside those three teams nobody has a chance to win. If you’re running sixth through 20th, you really don’t have a chance of winning."
