Russell: Williams so far behind, races are like test sessions

George Russell believes his new team Williams are so far behind the rest on the grid that actual race weekends will be treated as "test sessions".

After a near-crisis two weeks of pre-season testing in Barcelona for the former world champions, the first race in Australia rather unsurprisingly saw Williams occupy the bottom two places on the grid.

Russell and his new team-mate Robert Kubica struggled all weekend with a fundamental flaw discovered on its FW42 car, and with the departure of technical director Paddy Lowe following the delay to its new car in Barcelona - things haven't exactly gone to plan for Williams so far in 2019.

The F2 world champion has insisted it is hard to compare the FW42 against any other team's car, claiming he can only compare himself to Kubica this season, because of how far the British team are behind.

"From a personal perspective, you've only got your team-mate to compare against," Russell said, who finished a lap and a place in front of his Polish team-mate.