Jarno Trulli insists his best is yet to come this season after struggling with a lack of feel from the Lotus's power steering system so far.
Trulli has failed to qualify ahead of his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen at the opening three rounds of his 2011 campaign and in China finished 20 seconds adrift of his opposite number.
Meanwhile, the team is making progress with the T128 and is targeting points with a major upgrade at the Spanish Grand Prix. Trulli hopes he can get on top of his problems to make the most of the extra performance when it comes.
"At the moment I'm far from being at my best," he told ESPNF1. "It doesn't need much to get better, just a little bit more feeling in the power steering. And eventually when we get this aero upgrade working we will make a big step forward.
"So far I only complain about the power steering which is not working the way I want. It doesn't give me the feel from the car, it doesn't give me the confidence to really push and unlock the car's potential. I'm looking forward to having a better feeling with the car, that's my first priority."
Now in his 15th season in Formula One, Trulli admitted that the problem had taken some of the pleasure out of driving.
"I'm suffering with this power steering and I'm not enjoying it the way I wanted. I've had some nice battles which make you feel good, but it's just a little bit frustrating that I'm not able to push the way I want."
All the drivers have had to contend with major changes to the cars this season, including the introduction of high-wearing Pirelli tyres and the adjustable rear wing. Trulli said the tyres had been a further complication, but made clear that was not a criticism of Pirelli.
"In general we can only be positive because in the beginning - during testing - we were very concerned about the tyres, but then from the first race we didn't have any more troubles in terms of durability and performance," he said. "In general the tyres have spiced up the competition but it has introduced some other variables and at the moment we are still learning these tyres because they are very different from the previous ones - that's why sometimes the performance goes up and down so much. I would say so far they have been good for the sport."
Trulli believes the Drag Reduction System (DRS), disliked in some quarters for making racing artificial, has also played a part in improving the show and there was no point in drivers moaning about it.
"It's artificial, but if you put the tyre and the DRS together it seems they have both spiced up the races and made it better for people watching on TV," he added. "For us it's slightly different, from a driver point of view it's not very exciting. There are several things that are not in the driver's hands. So far we can say it is working and it is doing what we expected it to do. The changes are positive so there is no point to say whether I like it or not - the fact is that the races have been very interesting."
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