BMW extract positives from France result

Just one race on from the team's historic 1-2 in the Canadian Grand Prix, Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld had a difficult afternoon as they lost out to stronger opposition.

But despite the disappointment of the result, Theissen is philosophical that his team's troubles will act as a wake-up call that the outfit must keep working hard if they are to maintain their challenge to Ferrari and McLaren.

"Throughout the weekend, our package failed to work perfectly," Theissen told the official BMW Sauber website. "As early as the practice sessions both our drivers said that the car wasn't handling as well as it usually does.

"We experimented with the set-up and also changed from the harder to the softer tyre compound and vice versa. But whatever we tried - the progress was limited."

He added: "Maybe it's not such a bad thing that the high in Montreal and the low encountered at Magny-Cours occurred back-to-back. This demonstrates that there still is a lot of work waiting for us.

"On Tuesday we start testing at Silverstone, the venue of the next race in two weeks time. We want to regain our usual form there."

Theissen also said that although Heidfeld endured a troubled time to finish 13th, there was at least some encouragement after the German qualified closer to Kubica.

"Obviously, finishing 13th at Magny-Cours was a disappointment for him," he said. "On the other hand, the French GP weekend also had its encouraging aspects for Nick.

"He took a major step toward making better use of the car's potential in the qualifying session. In Q2, he was just six hundredths of a second slower than Robert. Unfortunately he just missed out on the top-ten qualifying."