Robert Kubica has said that the
BMW Sauber F1 Team are going to have to really analyse just what went wrong this weekend at the French Grand Prix, with a view to bouncing back in two weeks times in the UK.
Kubica - and team-mate
Nick Heidfeld - struggled with the
F1.08 at Magny Cours and while in the end the former managed to finish pretty strongly, just narrowly behind
Toyota's Jarno Trulli and
McLaren's
Heikki Kovalainen in third and fourth respectively, the Swiss-based squad was nowhere near as competitive as it was in Montreal.
Kubica, who won his maiden grand prix in Canada two weeks ago, now drops to second in the 2008 drivers' championship, two points behind race winner
Felipe Massa.
"We didn't score as many points as we wanted to here in Magny-Cours," the Pole admitted. "Over the whole weekend we tried to minimize the problems we had, and we knew the race would be decided on the first lap.
"At the start I tried to overtake
Jarno Trulli, but did not manage it. I tried again in turn 5 on the outside, but it did not work out.
"In the end I have to say I am pretty happy. I finished fifth, only 2 seconds away from the podium.
"We now have to analyse what happened here and see how we can improve for the next race."
BMW Sauber boss Mario Theissen agreed that the team just didn't get the most from the package.
"The race reflected yesterday's qualifying. Over the entire weekend here our package did not work perfectly," he added. "Robert was stuck in traffic on his second stint and, therefore, lost his chance of a podium finish. Nick lost two positions at the start [and finished a lowly 13th].
"Neither driver ever had a realistic chance to attack. We had no technical problems, and the result is four points for our team. From now on we will prepare for the
Silverstone race."
BMW Sauber will now begin its preparations for the British GP this week, when the team conducts a three-day test at the Northamptonshire-based track from Tuesday July 24 to Thursday July 26. Kubica will run on days 1 and 2, while Heidfeld will be out on day 3.
