Seven-time world champion says the start to his 2024 campaign is even worse than 2009, his first season as world champion.

That year he was excluded from the results of the season opener in Australia for "misleading the stewards" - a situation that led to McLaren's sporting director, Dave Ryan having to fall on his sword - while he finished seventh in Malaysia and sixth in China.

Though the points structure was entirely different he went into round four (Bahrain) with just 4 points, and though he picked up another 5 points there, that is only one point less than he has after three rounds this year.

"This is the worst start to a season I have ever had," he told reporters in Melbourne. "It's even worse than 2009, I think."

Asked how he feels, and whether he's counting the days until he joins Ferrari - ironically replacing today's winner - he replied: "Surprisingly, I feel pretty good. I'm trying to keep things in perspective, you know?

"It could be so much worse," he added, "I'm really grateful and have really enjoyed my time here in Australia. I'm still enjoying working with the team.

"Of course, I'd love to be fighting for wins and finishing races," he continued, "it's never a great feeling when you come all this way and don't even see half of the race, but what I know is that we will bounce back and will get there, we just have to chip away at it.

"It's easy to be caught up in the moment and focus on this one thing," he added, "but the bigger picture is definitely the focus at the moment and also just realising that you can't control everything. You can get frustrated because you don't have control, but if you can just let go and be in the moment, that's what I'm trying to do.

"It's not great, I'm not happy, but I'm going to have a great day tomorrow and train hard this week."

Worryingly for the seven-time world champion, those opening four races weren't the worst of it, for he failed to score a single point in the five races that followed Bahrain, not making it to the podium until Hungary where he won. A further win in Singapore eventually saw the Briton claim 5th in the standings.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Melbourne here.