Q & A with Robert Kubica

Robert Kubica: Yeah I mean, I didn't get a feel in last week's testing of the small updates we brought here, so yesterday was quite a busy day for me. I had to test different stuff to get the best setup as possible, which is not easy at Barcelona as the conditions are always changing. We worked pretty well, with a lot of testing of things, and we put it together this morning and it worked really well.

Q. Out of the top three teams, at three of the first four races it has looked like it has been Ferrari, BMW Sauber and then McLaren in terms of pace. Do you think that is the real order now?

RK: It looks like lately that we are very close to McLaren, and maybe staying in front of them by half a tenth. But maybe when we don't get a proper lap or proper setup then maybe we are a bit slower. But I think we are fighting with them, and it is looking pretty okay.

Q. How do you judge Renault's performance here?

RK: I think overall, Barcelona is a track that gives smaller gaps than the other tracks due to the fact everyone knows it. Fernando did a good job but I think he is quite light.

Q. Are you surprised by Fernando?

RK: No, why?

Q. Because Renault were fighting for Q3 at every race so far, but not here.

RK: As I said, I think Barcelona allows some teams to be closer to the top teams and this is what happened. If you look at how tight it was to go in Q3, with two tenths you could be 11th or sixth, or something like this. It is kind of normal stuff here in Barcelona. The fuel load plays quite an important role in qualifying, so we will see tomorrow.

Q. Do you think with this kind of form Fernando could be fighting for the world championship?

RK: The world championship? I don't know. Ask him. Why you ask me? What am I? His lawyer? I don't know. If Renault bring a good car he can fight for the world championship. I think he showed that last year. It depends a lot on the car he has.

Q. Is it going to be quite a boring afternoon tomorrow, with overtaking so difficult here?

RK: Yeah. It is very important to start in the front, because running behind someone you have much higher tyre degradation. Coming back to the strategies, I am really happy as in Q2 I think I was the only one who only did one run and I was still second with a very close time to (Felipe) Massa. Okay, maybe everyone wasn't pushing but with the gaps being so small I expect everybody was pushing as hard as possible, so pace wise it wasn't bad.

Q. How much work have the team done on the starts after Bahrain?

RK: This is quite a big topic at the moment with our car. I hope we will get better starts tomorrow, but to be honest I am a bit scared again.

Q. Is it a mechanical issue or an electronic engine-mapping issue?

RK: I think it is something related with managing clutch positions and things like this.

Q. How quickly can that be solved?

RK: I don't know. Of course the team is working and we know where there is the problem, but looking at today the starts we have done were not really consistent. So you never know what to expect.

Q. Teams test a lot at Barcelona, would you say that every car is fine-tuned?

RK: I think it is much easier for the engineers and drivers to get a proper setup. You have much more experience and much more data from the track. You know if the weather is five-degrees hotter you know what it does to the setup, you know in the morning the car is always balance-wise and for driving different to the afternoon. You have much more data and life is easier, which is why I think the whole field is closer together.

Q. How was the car in the quite windy conditions?

RK: I think it was quite good. It is not very windy, and I think what is worse is when the wind changes and is not consistent. Today we had consistent wind, and it wasn't very strong, so it was no big problem. In Bahrain it was much worse, and for everyone it was the same.

Q. How do you feel about BMW Sauber's ability to develop at the same rate as McLaren and Ferrari?

RK: It is still early to say. But in the last two years we were pretty similar in the way we developed the car and kept the gaps. Of course when you build a stronger car it is much harder to gain two or three tenths. When you have a slower car it is much easier, but we are in a good place and I am expecting strong development at our team. I am not worried about this point.

Q. From what we saw in Q1 and Q2, do you think you have reduced the gap to Ferrari or not?

RK: I don't know. I don't think so. It is just that maybe some drivers were not really pushing in Q1 and Q2, but that is why maybe some of them were forced to put a second set of tyres on and do a second run. I tried to push because I knew the limit to go into the next session was quite small.