Kubica: More to come from Renault
Robert Kubica reckons there is even more speed to come from his Renault after a promising opening day of practice at the Japanese Grand Prix
The Pole ended Friday as Red Bull Racing's nearest challenger - but said his car's handling was far from perfect.
"My feeling is not as good as it looks," explained Kubica. "I can feel very good in the car and I can be two seconds off, or I can feel so-so in the car and I can be the quickest.
"My feeling in the first sector is that I have an oversteery car, which I think most of the people know I don't like too much. It means in the first six or seven corners, where you have to keep your line, with oversteer you lose the line and it makes it hard to be consistent. That is why I say my feeling is not as good as it might look for the timesheet.
"We have to try and fix a couple of issues and to extract more performance from the car - and once you have more confidence in Turns 4/5/6/7 you will be able to go quicker through them."
Despite his third fastest time, Kubica reckoned that title contenders Ferrari and McLaren may not have shown their full hand in practice.
"The general characteristic in the last race is that we could be more competitive here because of Spa, but still we are more of less the same as we were expecting.
"I am a bit surprised, but the gap is more or less normal to Red Bull. Maybe some other teams were running with a bit more fuel in order that there will most probably not be a dry qualifying, so you don't have to prepare low fuel, so there might be a different mix of cars."
When asked how strong he felt the Renault would be in the wet, Kubica said: "Well it can be wet and it can be [really] wet. You can be quick and you can be slow, depending on how much water there is and you have to be able quite lucky.
"You have to read the conditions because tyre pressures can have a big influence in the wet - and if there is standing water, no standing water, it is difficult to evaluate.
"During all last year you can see some drivers are very quick in the wet on some occasions and other occasions not so good. It is a mixture, so it is difficult to judge your competitiveness in the wet."
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