• Canadian Grand Prix

Perfect weekend will show true potential - Kobayashi

Kamui Kobayashi: "With our car, if we have everything fine we can be very competitive" © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Canadian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Kamui Kobayashi

• Teams:
• Alfa Romeo

Kamui Kobayashi believes the Sauber has huge potential if the team can put together a perfect weekend.

Kobayashi's team-mate Sergio Perez finished second at the Malaysian Grand Prix earlier this year, but Sauber's form has been patchy at some venues with the drivers often struggling to match their qualifying performances in the race or vice-a-versa. Kobayashi's best finish this year was fifth in Spain but he believes he has yet to show the car's full potential.

"With our car, if we have everything fine we can be very competitive, but it's very difficult to make the weekend perfect," he told reporters in Canada. "This is the only problem but we are still really positive and we are just waiting for that.

"Even in Barcelona I had a really good chance but unfortunately I had a problem in the qualifying and we had to start P9 - if we had qualified well maybe we could have started P5 and that makes the race completely different. But it's not only the qualifying, sometimes we start from the front but if we have a bad start ... This is very difficult and it's not the driver that controls everything, that's why we need a perfect weekend."

Weather conditions have been mixed at most races this year and this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix looks likely to be disturbed by more wet weather. However, Kobayashi is hoping for a straightforward weekend.

"This is what we need," he said. "We need to make a good weekend without any problems and this will give us, I think, a good result. Last year was really special because our pace was quite weak in qualifying in the dry, but in the race on the intermediate tyres it was really great but once we were back in the dry it was really weak for us. We know why and this year if it happens, the same thing, we can definitely be better than last year. We need to have the stabilised conditions in the dry and not rain, and we have to make a great result with that."

Despite being one of the smaller teams on the grid, Kobayashi is confident Sauber can remain competitive but warned that one failed upgrade could be very costly.

"If we make a mistake with one development, for us there is a lot of pain," he said. "But if everything is fine and where we want we can make good steps forward and we can follow the development speed. But one mistake or one wrong decision for the development and this becomes a problem. When I look at last year, we didn't do anything stupid, but we had less budget and it was difficult to develop the exhaust system. That was a big problem."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.