Kubica: BMW need more speed to win

BMW Sauber still need more speed to be able to fight for victories, according to Polish driver Robert Kubica.

The German squad have enjoyed a strong start to the season, finishing in second place both in Australia and Malaysia, and are currently second behind McLaren in the standings.

BMW motorsport boss has made it clear that the team`s target for 2008 is to score their maiden win.

But Kubica reckons that in order to score a victory on merit, BMW will need to find more speed.

“I think to win you have to be the fastest and in both occasions, in Australia and Malaysia, we were there but we did not have enough speed to win,” said Kubica in Bahrain.

“Of course you can win after benefiting from the problems of others, or through luck, but the goal is to win by our own force.

“So we have to be the fastest. At the moment we are lacking a bit of laptime, not a lot, but we are working on it. And I hope one day we will be able to achieve it.”

The Pole, however, believes his team could close the gap once Formula One arrives in Europe at the end of the month.

He added: “Once we get to Barcelona I expect everyone to be much closer as everyone knows the track. It will be easier to extract the maximum potential from the car. It will be easier to find the right balance and you will see a closer gap between the cars.

“Everyone will have new parts there, so we will be able to say a bit more after that race.”

Kubica also admitted BMW were not second fastest neither in Australia and Malaysia, instead benefitting from their rivals` misfortunes.

“In Australia we were second because Ferrari had obvious problems with Raikkonen in qualifying and they retired from the race,” he said. “But pace wise, they were very strong. And in Malaysia, the penalty of five places for Hamilton and Kovalainen helped us a bit, but I still think during the race we were quite similar pace.

“I think it is changing, drifting a bit. But you have to be lucky with the set-up to get it right straight away, so you can extract the maximum performance.

“It is a bit of luck, but there were some circumstances as to why we were second. But it is important to be close to use opportunities.”

3.4.2008   ▪ Formula One    ▪ BMW, Kubica    ▪ www.autosport.com