Q & A with Robert Kubica

Robert Kubica: "Yeah, I didn't finish the race at Silverstone unfortunately. Of course we can discuss where it was 100 per cent a mistake or not, but I aquaplaned. In the end it is difficult not to have any problems if you are spinning in the middle of the straight.

"The fact is that I didn't finish the race and I didn't score any points. It could have been better at Silverstone and it could have been worse. In such conditions it was not easy. As I said, when you aquaplane, you can do nothing."

Q: Is it frustrating though, with BMW not being quite as quick as McLaren and Ferrari, from a championship point of view?

RK: "Who said it is not frustrating? Of course it would be better to have scored some points, but in the end this is racing. As I said, in nine races I have not done any mistakes. OK, once in Australia in qualifying, but I still managed to put the car onto the first row.

"At Silverstone there was aquaplaning, and that's all. In the end, if in nine races you don't finish one race, it's still OK. I didn't finish in Australia but that was because of different problems. So I think all in all in nine races it has been really good."

Q: Are you aiming for a win this weekend, or are McLaren and Ferrari still too far ahead?

RK: "I don't know, it's difficult to judge. I am aiming for the maximum that I can take from this race. Of course tomorrow after free practice we will have a better idea, but also at Silverstone in qualifying we saw that we were more competitive than we thought. So we have to wait and see."

Q: What did you test last week?

RK: "Some new parts. Not a lot of new things, but some improvements on the car. Not a lot of preparing for this race, so hopefully tomorrow it will be dry and we can work on the set-up."

Q: There is a rumour that you tried a KERS system.

RK: "Myself, no. I didn't try it."

Q: Are you happy with the pace of your team in the last few weeks?

RK: "As I said, we had some improvements on the car for this grand prix. Not very big, but some of them improve bits of the car. In the end you have to judge against the others how quickly you are improving, so you have to wait and see from this grand prix and the Hungarian Grand Prix what it brings us and where we will be."

Q: Would you prefer rain or dry?

RK: "I think in both conditions we can do well, so for me it's the same."

Q: Is this the kind of circuit that suits your car?

RK: "This is a kind of normal circuit. It hasn't really got any special characteristics. Maybe the asphalt is a bit different to normal, it's quite strange, how the tyres are working here. But we have to now see what the weather will bring.

"In cold conditions we will have to see because this will have a big influence upon the performance of the car and the balance. It's quite important to have a well-balanced car with not a lot of understeer because there are quite long corners. And it's also important to have good traction to be able to go out from low-speed corners with very early power."

Q: Were you surprised by Lewis Hamilton's performance at Silverstone?

RK: "Not really. We knew that McLaren and himself, and not only him but also Kovalainen, were strong. I think Kovalainen in the right conditions was stronger that Hamilton at Silverstone. In qualifying Heikki did a very good lap time. In the rain he was impressively quick, and what was even more impressive was how from outside, from some angles it was looking like it was easy for him to drive so quick. So it was a very good job."

Q: Do you have any concern for the softer tyres, especially in turn five?

RK: "It's not important. We are not stressing the tyres, and we are using quite hard compounds here. I am not expecting big problems with graining."

Q: Your feelings have been quite strong about developing through to the end of the season. Do you expect BMW to continue developing through to the end?

RK: "I'm not seeing any reason why we shouldn't develop to the end, but in the end you should ask not myself, but someone who is designing it. I think the team is trying to do the maximum for this year's car, and trying to also design and work hard on next year's car."

Q: Do you expect any new parts to come between now and over the break?

RK: "From what I heard we will have a big package in Monza. But Monza is a low downforce track anyway, so I don't know. Of course the team is trying to improve the car for every grand prix but I don't know if these will be big upgrades or small."

Q: At the beginning of the year did you expect to be this close in the championship?

RK: "Not really. Two points after nine races, I was not expecting to be so close. But after what has happened to more or less every driver and every team in these first nine races, I think we are not there by mistake, not because we are lucky, but because we did a good job with the team and the whole package works very well, I would say. And this is the reason."