Sauber convinced further success to come in 2012

The Swiss squad has taken a significant step forward this year, having scored four podiums and having been in the fight for victory in some races.

Sauber has scored 100 points in 13 races, 66 more than in all of last year.

Kaltenborn is confident the C31 car is yet to reach its peak, and she reckons the Ferrari-powered machine will get faster in the final part of the season.

"We are working extremely efficiently," said Kaltenborn. "The extensive package of upgrades we introduced for the races at Barcelona and Silverstone were successful.

"Our progress at the race track has met our expectations and calculations in full, which is a major feather in the cap of our engineers. And there's still more to come from the C31.

"We'll be bringing another series of upgrades to the upcoming races in Asia, at the same time as pushing ahead with the development of next year's car, of course. So it's not only a question of the pace of development, but more particularly efficiency.

"Here, the issue of costs clearly plays a critical role. The greater the resources at your disposal, the more intensively you can develop the car, and that is reflected directly in performance."

Kaltenborn admitted the goal for this year remains to beat Mercedes to fifth place in the standings, despite the German squad being 26 points ahead.

"After our strong start to the season, many people were predicting that the wheels would come off for us, so to speak, as the season progressed," she said.

"The reality, though, is we're getting stronger all the time, and I'm anticipating that we'll continue to deliver good performances through the final third of the season.

"Before the season got under way we said we wanted to significantly improve our position in the World Championship.

"Taking our seventh place in the constructors' standings in 2011 as a starting point, that would mean finishing fifth this year.

"That's an ambitious target, but you have to set your sights high. And I have every confidence in our team."