The Polish driver was the first one to admit it, while practically urging his team to chose a different path for their 2009 development. Kubica is also far from being optimistic about the Barcelona package, as he reckoned it will not make that big of a difference as compared to what BMW is currently running.
“We perhaps need to take a different path, because like last year the speed of our development has not been good,” said Kubica, according to German news agency SID. When referring to the new package, due to be implemented in Spain, he concluded: “Overall I don't think the picture is going to change much. We might be a bit closer (in Barcelona) but we are not suddenly going to jump from the seventh to the front row.”
Kubica will likely lose another chance to challenge for the F1 title in 2009, after being so close to clinch it last year. Due to BMW's sudden change of strategy mid-way through the 2008 campaign, Kubica was left with no support for the second part of the season.
Another set of poor judgment calls during the off-season – Kinetic Energy Recovery System development, lack of double diffuser, etc – have affected BMW performance in the first rounds of this season. Although debuting with a strong performance (by Kubica) in Australia – when he almost took 2nd place – BMW's other good performances were only the result of good strategy and pure luck – see the Sepang race.
BMW is expected to debut a new aero kit in Barcelona, including a new double diffuser. Also, the Hinwil based team is expected to go ahead with the use of KERS throughout the European events as well.
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