Q & A with Robert Kubica

Robert Kubica: The car balance was not the best one. Overall we were struggling with the grip this weekend and we did some changes for qualifying. It looks like they made the situation even worse, so it has a negative effect on the balance rather than a positive. We were just not quick enough.

Q. Why was the balance not so good this weekend?

RK: I don't know. It is difficult. To be honest, already from yesterday the first laps I was not really happy about how the car was behaving and the balance was not where I wanted it to be. We could not improve the situation. We were changing something and unfortunately it did not work.

Q. With one eye on the world championship this season, is today even more of a disappointment?

RK: Normally always you are quite disappointed when you cannot find the balance of the car, especially at the end of the season that has been quite important for me. Even though I have the opportunity to fight for the world championship, it is not the best moment to be 11th on the grid. But we have been in a worse situation before, and we have been in a better situation as well. So we have to take it. The worst thing is that for tomorrow there is nothing that we can do, so I am expecting quite a difficult race there. That is all.

Q. If tomorrow you are not within 10 points of the championship leader, will there be an extra disappointment then. Or do you just shrug your shoulders and carry on?

RK: I am always fighting for the maximum amount of points, and I think already before this Grand Prix we knew that some circumstances had to happen to Lewis Hamilton and Felipe (Massa), and additionally I had to score many points. We were not scoring a lot of points lately, so to score 13 points or more in two races was going to be a big challenge. Additionally in this qualifying, all weekend we have been struggling and it does not help the situation. And from now on it does not look great.

Q. Your team could not keep up their development rate through the season, you lost points because of safety car problems, but do you feel from your perspective and the driving job you did that you did all you could?

RK: I think I can be quite happy with my driving. Of course there were some circumstances and some races where, when you review them, you think you could have done better. But as always nobody is perfect, or at least I think so - maybe someone thinks they are the best!

I believe you can always learn, you can always improve and of course there were some races where we could manage better some situations. All in all I am quite happy with how I was performing this season, how I was driving.

I took the opportunities in the race where I could, like in Japan and in Canada, and when we were not up in the pace I tried to limit the damage - like in Magny-Cours and Hungary.

All in all I am pretty happy. Looking at some circumstances you would love to have some more luck - like in Singapore or in Hockenheim when I was easy fourth and I dropped to seventh because of the safety car. In some situations you would like to have a bit more luck, but the luck is out of my control. And from a driving point of view I am pretty happy.

Q. You talked in Fuji about the lack of development progress for the team over the past two months. What do you think was wrong?

RK: There was nothing wrong. There were new parts brought to the car that did not work as they were supposed to work, so we were sticking to the old parts - which were better performing. That is why we could not improve the car lately or keep up the development compared to most of the teams. If you look also today in Q2, there were two Toro Rossos, there was a Renault quicker - it looks like they have made progress. And Ferrari and McLaren, it is quite normal that they are fighting for the championship so they are pushing quite hard.

Q. Jacques Villeneuve said yesterday that he felt you were the most worthy man to win the championship because you had not made the mistakes this year like Lewis and Felipe had. What is your reaction to that?

RK: I did not know he said that - it is the first time I hear that. I am quite surprised, but it is good to have this opinion - especially as everyone knows what happened in 2006. Maybe Jacques was not one of the most favourable drivers towards me but it looks like he changed his mind maybe a bit - so I am really surprised to hear it, as he is also quite good friends of Felipe Massa.