Robert Kubica has praised the efforts of everyone back at the BMW Sauber factories in Munich and Hinwil for helping the squad to achieve such a strong start to the 2008
Formula 1 campaign – but he has insisted there is still work to do if the team is to challenge for victories in 2008.
Indeed, given the
F1.08's stuttering start to winter preparations – with
Nick Heidfeld in particular complaining about a lack of balance and middling testing times in the lead-up to Melbourne – the German's runner-up spot Down Under and his Polish team-mate's repeat performance in Malaysia last weekend came as something of a surprise not only to the grand prix paddock, but even to the drivers and team themselves.
“It's mainly because of the very quick reaction time in Hinwil and Munich whenever we faced troubles,” Kubica told the official Formula 1 website in explanation of
BMW's impressive turnaround in performance over the past couple of months. “I prefer to keep my feet on the ground, though, since it's still too early to say we have achieved the targets of this season.”
Those targets, of course, are the top step of the podium – part of the outfit's three-year plan when it bought out the former Sauber concern at the end of the 2005 season. Points were the goal in the first year and that box was ticked; podiums were the objective in 2007 and Heidfeld delivered two of them; now victory is very much on the agenda in 2008 – but Kubica warned that despite having out-paced McLaren-Mercedes for his first rostrum finish in more than 20 races in Sepang, BMW is still not ready to win on its own terms just yet.
“We have been more consistent than they [
Ferrari and McLaren] have,” explained the 23-year-old, who was wished luck on the grid in Sepang by
Bernie Ecclestone, no less. “Ferrari had a troubled weekend in Australia and
McLaren [had one] in Malaysia. I think it's a bit of a combination of several factors.
