Kamui Kobayashi relaxed about Sauber reliability

Although Sauber had a trouble-free first day of running at Jerez last week, it lost mileage to problems on each of the following three days of testing.

But Kobayashi said all the glitches were typical new car teething problems.

"This is just four days with the new car, problems happen sometimes. It's a new car. This is why we are here," he said.

"We need to get lots of mileage and investigate problems. We had a couple of problems and we have to improve that. The mileage for four days is quite a lot so this is quite natural stuff.

"In my first season in 2010, we hardly had any problems in the winter, but once we started the races we had big problems. Compared to that, I think we are in good shape. We just had a couple of troubles and we just have to understand that."

He added that Sauber had yet to do much performance work on the C31, but that he felt the car's basic potential was good.

"We're still checking the aero numbers and the small changes to check everything for development. We haven't worked for the set-up, so I don't know how much potential we have, but we can definitely improve a lot," said Kobayashi.

"This is the first step of development. They're going to check the numbers and let's see. But for me, I'm happy with the car.

"The balance was pretty good for me. I think the platform itself is good."