Kubica trusts BMW can fight back

The Polish driver could only qualify 17th - one place behind his team-mate Nick Heidfeld - while neither driver made it out of Q3 for the first time this season.

But despite that, he believes that he could have a chance to move up the grid over the course of the next few races.

"You can see some people have stepped up a lot," said Kubica. "Go back to Australia and McLaren was miles away [from the pace] and today, if Lewis hadn't crashed, they'd have battled for pole. Ferrari too.

"It shows that it is possible, if you are struggling, to come back with a strong package. That's what we have to do.

"It's just a case that sometimes you're on top, and sometimes not. We have to make sure we come back as quickly as possible to fight for top positions. Maybe we can do that in three races, maybe 10, maybe never. We will see."

Kubica said that his major problem around the streets of Monaco was a lack of downforce, which is preventing him from getting sufficient heat into his Bridgestone tyres, and causing a resultant lack of grip.

"If you look at the top cars here, you can see clearly that the tyre is moving, it's working, there is energy there. Our tyres are just sliding, so it's a consequence of the lack of downforce," he added.

"Clearly I've had traffic on the out lap and you all know that, if you slow down, you're leaving the tyres to cool down and they will never start working that way.

"This is a problem we've had since the winter, so it's nothing new. The problem of making the tyres work is a consequence of other things."