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George Russell says the strong performances of his fellow Formula 1 rookies reflects well on him amid Williams' struggles.
Russell is one of three rookies in this year's field, with Lando Norris and Alexander Albon also receiving a 2019 promotion to F1 from Formula 2.
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However, while Norris and Albon are fighting for points, Russell is competing at the back of the field as Williams is searching to identify and fix its current car problems.
Russell, who beat Norris and Albon to the F2 title last year, states that their strong performances show what he would be able to do if he had the car capable of competing.
"I think the level of rookies these days is extremely high, and obviously in these difficult times for me, looking at what they're doing, I wouldn't say it fills me with pride, but it kind of looks good on me as well," Russell said.
"Obviously we all raced in equal machinery last year, so if they're doing a great job, then that looks good on me as well."
Difficult career makes 2019 struggles easier
Williams' issues have increased from 2018, when it too was competing at the rear of the grid most of the season.
After a disappointing start to the 2019 campaign for the Grove squad, Russell claims that the fact he didn't have "a perfect career" leading to F1 makes the situation for him easier.
"It's not my first difficult year," he told Autosport. "I think sometimes if you have just such a perfect career path, when you do have a difficulty, you don't know how to handle it.
"I've had a number of difficult moments in my career, so I've sort of got the experience on that hand.
"My last year in karting was very difficult, sort of went to a team [Birel ART] which wasn't performing at the time. I saw it was a win-win situation: if I performed it'd look great on me and if I didn't, people would just blame it on the equipment.
"You can call that character-building seasons, and I also had that in Formula 3, my two seasons in Formula 3 were far from perfect.
"And that made me sort of into the driver I am today, and I learned a huge amount from those moments."
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