The Mexican, who is yet to finish a grand prix this season while his teammate Romain Grosjean has already racked up 18 points, faced further problems in China on Friday, when he only managed six laps – none of them timed – in FP1 and FP2.

“I don’t think it is bad luck, it is clear mistakes, we just need to work so that mistakes don’t happen the next time,” said a disappointed Gutierrez.

The Haas driver suffered a gearbox issue in FP1 and had brake-by-wire problems in FP2, in which his rear brakes caught fire, forcing him to call it a day.

“Things keep happening, different things, it is very frustrating," the Mexican said.

"At the moment, my job is to keep focus over the weekend and build up the speed step by step.”

No favouritism

Team principal Gunther Steiner believes that Gutierrez will be able to cope with the early struggles – and that the team is doing all it can to solve the prevalent issues.

“He knows that we are not doing it on purpose, we have no interest to make him look bad," Steiner said.

“We are not trying hard to make him look bad, we are trying hard to make him look good, for sure it is not motivating but I think he can cope with it.

“I don’t know what’s happening, it’s just we have to get better, we cannot say we are unlucky or lucky. We just need to get our act together with his car."

Steiner also rubbished the suggestion that the team is favouring one driver over the other, saying that the drivers get the same parts.

“It is the same, everything is the same, [Gutierrez's] brakes [that failed in Bahrain] could have been on Romain’s car.

"We are not picking one over the other, he just got the bad one.”

Additional reporting by Oleg Karpov