Kubica: Monaco repeat impossible

Although Renault is to introduce further upgrades to its car in Turkey, with a new front wing and other tweaks fitted to its R30, Kubica believes his outfit is still lacking overall downforce compared to pacesetter Red Bull Racing.

"I think we will be more or less back to pre-Monaco performance," said Kubica ahead of the Istanbul weekend. "I think there will be no big surprises and our target will not be the first row - or at least for a realistic qualifying position, I'm not expecting to be able to fight for such a good position as in Monaco.

"But of course I will try my best, and I think we can be similar to Barcelona, although of course there are many teams working on F-ducts. As we have seen with Sauber, when it's working it can deliver quite a good advantage. Sauber did a big step forward between China and Barcelona. We'll have to see if the other teams will go forwards."

Kubica thinks his showing in Monaco, where he qualified on the front row and finished third, was a reason for Renault to work even harder from now on - rather than believe it has done enough to regularly fight for podiums.

"We have to be realistic: it will be nearly impossible to repeat the [Monaco] result here," he said. "It was a good result; we brought home a good amount of points. But we have to keep working and pushing to try and improve."