"It had nothing to do with my team-mate, but everything to do with my driving style and my window of operation where I can deliver and feel confident with the car. This obviously was a bit easier for Sebastian, and that was his big chance to be able to adapt to a car and to get the best out of it. I can do this as well with a car I am quite happy with, but if that's not the case it's getting a bit harder.

"The biggest difference is that I have never before been in a position where we could not fix the problems – there was always a solution. Here it is obviously very conceptual, meaning very much a design issue, and the flexibility in setting up the cars is quite narrow.

"If the car has characteristics such as this year with the STR3 – not taking away anything from the potential of the car, as it is very quick as Sebastian has demonstrated and I have also been able to show from time-to-time, but not on a regular basis – the margin and the flexibility that a driver has to set the car up in is a lot narrower than in any other series. I had never faced that before, where I was forced to drive a car I didn't like.

"First you have the phase where you desperately try to find solutions, and obviously we wasted quite a bit of time doing so – that is only a good thing when you find a solution, but when there aren't any solutions it is basically purely wasting your time.

"I think in some ways I helped the team to understand the car better, because we tried so many different things that in the end we had a very good idea of what was the best and what you should stay away from. That actually was a good thing, and in some ways might explain why we maybe had a bit better understanding [of the car] than Red Bull Racing.

"Then came the second phase where we tried to optimise what we thought was the best set-up on the car in terms of potential, and the third phase was starting in Japan – or actually in Singapore, but there we did not have enough downforce and I was still struggling in the car – where we had a little update that changed a bit the sensitivity of the rear of the car in the mid-speed corners, and that re-balanced the car a bit between high-speed and low-speed.

"I became not happy with the car, but a bit closer to where I wanted it to be and then I got a bit closer to Sebastian and actually delivered in two races – in Japan and China where I was a bit quicker than him in the race. That was a bit of satisfaction for sure."

Another factor in the equation is that – whilst Bourdais clearly wants to stay in F1 – in holding out for a decision from STR that may or may not go his way, the former International F3000 Champion risks missing out on other offers away from the grand prix paddock.

Whilst his manager Nicolas Todt acknowledges that is a concern, the son of former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt has equally sought to underline that he is confident the man whose 'achievements are the envy of many drivers... has a future at the highest levels of motorsport'.

"It is a rather unpleasant period," Todt acknowledged, quoted by F1SA. "It is correct that to be in November and not know what you will be doing next year is very unpleasant.