Lance Stroll left seriously unimpressed following initial runs in the Aston Martin.

While nobody has yet stretched their legs, Stroll, who only had 5 laps in Barcelona, and a further 36 yesterday, is already playing down hopes of Aston Martin doing a Brawn this year.

Indeed, judging by the Canadian's mood, the Silverstone-based outfit is looking a little more Andrea Moda, despite having the best designer and one of the sport's most successful engine manufacturers.

Though, the AMR26 has hardly set the track alight, and is clearly off the pace being shown by the likes of Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes, when asked when we can expect to see his team close the gap, the youngster replied: "I don't know. I mean, right now we look like we're four seconds off the top teams, four and a half seconds.

"It's impossible to know what fuel loads and everything people are running," he admitted, "but, we need to try and find four seconds of performance, so we'll see.

"It's a combination of things," he insisted. "Engine, balance, grip. It's not one thing. It's a combination."

Asked where the solution lies, he said: "I don't think it falls from the sky, you know?"

"You have to improve and find performance in the car, in the engine," he continued, "these are just usual things in F1, when you're behind the competition, you have to think about ways to extract more from the package you have, and at the same time also improve.

"No one stands still in this business, everyone is trying to find performance in every way, every weekend, all the time, so we're doing that, we're trying to extract more performance every day from the car and think also longer-term, bring upgrades on the PU side, on the chassis side.

"We will see in Australia where we line up and then we will see throughout the season how we progress. We're pushing as hard as we can, and that's all we can do right now."

Asked, if despite the promise of a 'rebirth' for the team, if he feels disappointed, emotional, he replied: "I don't have an emotional reaction to it. I mean, we are where we are and, you know, do we want to fight for race wins? Yes. Are we fighting for race wins today? Doesn't look like it. Does that mean we can't fight for race wins in the future? I believe we can.

"I don't have a crystal ball," he added. "I didn't have a crystal ball before the season started and we are where we are here today. It doesn't look like it's amazing.

"Can that change in the next few weeks? Can it get a lot better? For sure. Will it 100% get, you know, way better? I don't know. I don't have the answers to those questions."

Adrian Newey has forgotten more about success in F1 than most of us will ever know, and the fact is that for some time now Lance has not looked as though he really wants to be in an F1 car. Now, if that isn't what Daddy wants all well and good, but there are over a thousand people working their bollocks off to try and give Lance a winning car and the very least is give them some hope, just a little positivity. His current mood does nobody any favours. If he wants out, let him go, give Fernando a teammate who wants to be there and will deliver.