Kubica remains cautious on BMW's form

The Pole and his team have so far exceeded expectations at the first Grand Prix of the season, and only missed out on beating Lewis Hamilton to the top spot on the grid by a few tenths of a second after running off track.

However, although delighted with the pace of his F1.08, Kubica thinks that it will still take a couple of races before the team understand just how good a campaign they can have.

When asked by autosport.com if he felt the car could challenge McLaren and Ferrari for wins on pure pace, Kubica said: "I think it is too early to say, and I am not saying this because we are on the front row.

"I think we have to wait three or four Grands Prix before we come back to Europe to get a clear vision. I am not scared to say that we can be competitive in conditions like here, where everything is okay and the track suits our car.

"But when we go to different tracks, where we might face some problems, we have to see how quick we will be. We will only see that in a couple of races."

Kubica thinks that BMW Sauber are still going to have to work hard to unlock more speed from the car, especially by making it more driver-friendly, following their difficult build-up to the season.

"At the beginning of testing, we were not really happy and we faced problems which we were not expecting at this time," he said. "But in this time, which was two months, the guys did a really good job and were pushing really hard.

"At the beginning of the season we were not where we expected, but now we thought we would be a bit more behind.

"We still have to work really hard, though, because we will face problems in some occasions. We have to work to make the car easier to drive, and better balanced. Then, if it is better balanced and easier to drive, you will gain lap time."

He added: "The car, we have seen, is a very good car, with very high potential. We just have to improve a couple of things which are there, and then we can become really competitive."