A fortnight that must rank as the most dispiriting of Liam Lawson's young Formula One career ended with a 17th-place finish at the Japanese Grand Prix and his Racing Bulls teammate fielding questions about a potential move up to Red Bull.
The 23-year-old New Zealander made that same move at the end of last season only to be summarily dumped after two races last week in a driver switch that saw Yuki Tsunoda promoted to partner world champion Max Verstappen at Red Bull.
Any pleasure Lawson took from outqualifying Tsunoda on Saturday would have dissipated pretty quickly in Sunday's race when a mistake on the opening lap allowed the Japanese driver to swoop past him and into 13th place.
With overtaking otherwise tricky, Racing Bulls decided to give Lawson an extended stint before pitting in the hope that a yellow flag might give him an opportunity to creep up the field.
The race was all but incident free, however, and Lawson crossed the line in 17th place with only three cars behind him.
"It was a tough start, lap one was really tricky. We'll obviously learn from that," Lawson said.
"We went really long, and I guess, tried something. It just didn't really work.
"I'll keep building. I'm getting used to the car, and pushing it. We had good pace throughout the weekend, unfortunately not when we needed to.
"There's always positives to take away from it."
One might be that having qualified 18th and failed to finish in Australia, before qualifying last in China, Lawson did at least make the cut for the second qualifying session at Suzuka.
A negative in the cut-throat world of Formula One would surely be the performance in the other Racing Bulls car of French rookie Isack Hadjar, who qualified in seventh place and finished eighth.
Hadjar laughed when asked if he would entertain a promotion to Red Bull after earning his first points in his third Formula One race, replying, "I would never refuse a call, that's for sure, but let's see."
Lawson said before the race that a potential future return to Red Bull was "part of the conversation" when he was demoted, but he will need better performances from the Bahrain race next week if he is to stay in that picture.
