Theissen not expecting repeat win

Formula One championship leader Robert Kubica's scored his breakthrough victory at Montreal two weeks ago. But Theissen says that while there is no pressure on the team to continue their winning streak, he thinks in any case it would be difficult for BMW to match Ferrari and McLaren for pace in France.

"Most probably not," he said, when asked if a repeat win was possible. "This is a new race. It starts from zero again. Certainly we are very motivated and the team is quite strong, so we will see what we can do this weekend.

"The new target is to perform as well as we can on a race-by-race basis and then see where we are at the end of the season. There is no additional pressure [after the Canada win] - just the opposite - but the team is very motivated to achieve good results now."

Theissen also believes there is far greater pressure on both Ferrari and McLaren as championship challengers, because his team have already achieved their pre-season aim of winning a grand prix.

"I am happy for McLaren and Ferrari to see each other as major opponents," he said.

"From my persepctive it can continue like this throughout the season. We as a team and Robert as a driver have exceeded expectations so far, so the pressure is not on us."

Theissen also says Kubica's teammate, Nick Heidfeld is now vying with McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen to become the 100th different driver to win a world championship grand prix.

This follows Heidfeld's recent test day at Barcelona, in which he concentrated on improving the way he manages tyre temperature, particularly in qualifying.

"I think of the current drivers, it looks like it would be between Heikki and Nick to win next," he said. "We had two days with Robert mainly focussing on the development of the car, and then one day for Nick, which was not planned originally, together with his race engineer in order to try to sort out how he can make better use of the performance of the car and how he can exploit the full potential."