The remark is loaded with understatement with his drivers Tim Slade and Nick Percat, having had five DNF’s and finishing in the last five cars five times so far this year.

They are presently 14th and 15th in the championship standings.

There has been plenty of light in between the darkness though, with the team qualifying in the top-10 11 times and finishing top-10 six times, including a podium for Percat in Darwin last month.

But writing off cars in the first few races of the year, with Percat especially having a couple of big crashes, put the team on the back foot.

“It’s hard to recover from so many accidents, but when we have got it right, we’ve been pretty speedy,” Jones said.

“I felt that Darwin was a bit of a turning point, but then we go to Townville and Tim Slade is involved in two accidents that weren’t his fault and Nick clipped a wall that cruelled his chances when was right in there.

“So we are thereabouts I guess.

“When the difference between being in a good spot or a bad spot is a 10th of a second in qualifying over a lap of 1-½ minutes its hard, really hard – but we are always very close, so there are lots of positives.”

Supercars have a new Dunlop tyre this season which is mandated for all the teams to use and is proving different from last year’s tyre.

Teams are having to alter the way the car’s suspension is set up to get speed and there have been a number of tyres blow as a result of teams pushing the boundaries.

In relation to this weekend’s round at Queensland Raceway, Jones says the team is building on last year’s performance.

“Ipswich has not been a place where we have been traditionally fast,” he said.

“Slower corners coming onto longer straights is not one our strengths but ‘Sladey’ went well there last year and had really good race pace, finishing fifth 

“We’re maximising everything we can.

“I’m hoping we’ll go up there and be competitive.

“You can have seven cars in a tenth of each other there, so it’s crazy close.”