Kubica pins hopes on Turkey upgrade

The Pole insisted that his team did gain ground with the parts it brought for Catalunya, but admitted that the step forward had not been as big as he had hoped. BMW will finally introduce its version of the double diffuser - along with a revised KERS device - at Istanbul.

"Looking at qualifying pace and the few laps where I was out of traffic, the pace was better than at previous events," he said. "So we have made a step forward. It's not as big as we were hoping or expecting, but it was there.

"I hope we will get at least as big, or even a better, step in Turkey as in Barcelona. But I don't know how big the step will be, or how the others will improve.

"In Barcelona all in all everybody had improved - some more, some less. The grid was a bit shuffled, but overall the gaps were pretty similar. So we have to keep working and hoping that in Turkey we will get quite a big step forward."

He said he remained sanguine about BMW's fall from grace, which has seen him go from fighting for the 2008 title to failing to score a single point in the first six races of 2009.

"It's the reality. No reason to worry, I would say," said Kubica. "Of course it would be better if I had some points or some wins in my account, but the reality is different, so we have to keep working, pushing and see what we can get out of the season."

He also denied he felt any frustration over BMW's decision to focus on 2009 development rather than a more concerted 2008 title push.

"Somehow as a driver you have to be prepared for something like this," Kubica said. "Of course I was hoping that we might be in good shape for this season, but already during the winter we had the first information that we might not be as strong as we were thinking and we were hoping to be.

"With the new regulations it was like a new Formula 1. The room for improvement was much bigger, and that's what happened. Some teams that were in difficulty made a big step forward, and with the double diffusers soon there was a final FIA okay, and they went for it straight away, so we were falling behind at every race.

"If you were faster by a second and you lost two tenths every race, you would still be first, but if you were already fifth or sixth and then falling behind, in a season like this when the pack is extremely competitive, we fell much further behind than we expected."