Jenson Button has revealed he never believed such dark days as he is currently experiencing would return to haunt him.
Button described himself as "confused and very lost" in the wake of a dire 16th-place finish in the Canadian Grand Prix with McLaren.
It was a wretched weekend from start to finish for Button given his woes in practice on Friday when an oil leak resulted in two gearbox changes and considerable time lost sat in the garage.
Set-up and tyre issues in qualifying then had a knock-on effect for the race in which he was forced to pit three times compared to those ahead who managed a one or two-stop strategy.
With just two points from the last four races, Button's run of finishing positions of 18th, ninth, 16th, 16th is his worst since the middle of 2008 during his miserable time with Honda.
Worse still for Button is that team-mate Lewis Hamilton lapped him en route to his third victory in Montreal and now leads the championship, with a 43-point gap between them.
Button said: "I didn't think I'd have days like these in my career again, and I don't understand it.
"Being lapped by your team-mate - who won the race and did an amazing job - it's a strange one more than disappointing. I'm not disappointed at all.
"It's just difficult to understand because it's not like we made mistakes or I crashed. I was just slow and I finished 16th.
"I couldn't look after the tyres and I had massive degradation, so the car just wasn't quick for me.
"A guy who started 15th (Sergio Perez) finished on the podium - and lapped me!
"We'll sort it out. There's no finger pointing, which is good from the team and myself. We just have to sit down and try and work out what the issues are."
It leaves Button refusing to even contemplate the championship at this moment as he knows to simply challenge for a race win again is his over-riding priority.
"Is the championship over or not? I don't know. I think we can still have some great races, we just have to sort ourselves out," added Button.
"Although I'm not giving up, I'm not thinking about the championship. When you've had a race like this you don't think about it.
"You think about solving your issues and getting back to the form where you expect to be fighting for wins, and it's been a few races since I've been there."
Even so, with 13 races and 325 points available, that surely puts a different perspective on matters for Button.
"Yeah, it does, but being lapped by the leaders means we've a lot to do to bring it back to a place to where we're competitive," he said.
But then despite reclaiming the lead in the title race, neither is Hamilton considering his title prospects just yet.
With a two-point cushion to Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and three over reigning champion in Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton said: "There's no way I'm thinking about the championship. It's too far away.
"We're not even halfway through the season. I'm just thinking about continuing to do what I'm doing."
Suggested to Hamilton he could at least control matters, the 27-year-old added: "I don't know about that, but it does feel incredible to be leading.
"This championship, though, is proving to be very unpredictable, and there could well be an eighth winner in Valencia (European GP on June 24). Who knows?
"If there isn't then I hope I'm at least in the fight and in with a chance of doing the same as I did in Montreal."
