Polish sensation Robert Kubica is confident that BMW Sauber will reclaim their rightful place behind McLaren and Ferrari at the British Grand Prix, despite the team’s disappointing showing in France.
Kubica, one of the unexpected stars of the 2008 season and a genuine contender in the title race, arrived in France last week on a high after sealing his maiden victory in Formula One and leading BMW Sauber to its first 1-2 finish.
However, both Kubica and team-mate Nick Heidfeld struggled with the handling of the F1.08 in Magny-Cours. Neither driver had particularly strong races with Heidfeld failing to make the qualifying run-off and Kubica just holding on to fourth place in the race.
Kubica acknowledges that many of the problems were as a result of going in the wrong direction with the development of the F1.08 prior to France.
“I think we have made some mistakes with choosing some new parts for Magny Cours which unfortunately I believe we didn’t test in Barcelona,” he told Forumula1.com.
“The team was convinced this was the right way to go. It wasn’t – ok we were not as fast as Ferrari but for sure in Magny Cours we dropped behind teams like Toyota, Renault and even Red Bull Racing.”
However, Kubica remains confident that BMW have got on top of the problems that plagued their French Grand Prix effort.
“I think it was coming partly from what we chose,” he says, “we are trying to understand this and I think we have a clear idea.”
“So for Silverstone we should be back to normal pace; so it means still quite a big gap to Ferrari and McLaren but in front of everyone else.”
Kubica lapped to within a few tenths of Heikki Kovalainen’s McLaren in testing at Silverstone today, confirming his intuitions and suggesting BMW Sauber are once again a serious threat to the front-runners.
