MANAMA, April 3, 2008 (AFP) - Poland's first Formula One driver Robert Kubica has called for more speed to be found in his car so that BMW can start winning races this year.

The German team has made a good start to the season, finishing second in both Australia and Malaysia. They are currently second behind McLaren in the constructors' standings.

But Kubica believes that the team and their cars need to find more speed if they are to start grabbing wins on merit.

He said: "I think to win you have to be the fastest and in both occasions, in Australia and Malaysia, we were there but we did not have enough speed to win.

"Of course, you can win after benefiting from the problems of others, or through luck, but the goal is to win by our own force.

"So we have to be the fastest. At the moment, we are lacking a bit of lap-time, not a lot, but we are working on it. And I hope one day we will be able to achieve it."

The Pole feels his team could close the gap once Formula One arrives in Europe at the end of the month.

He explained: "Once we get to Barcelona, I expect everyone to be much closer as everyone knows the track.

"It will be easier to extract the maximum potential from the car. It will be easier to find the right balance and you will see a closer gap between the cars.

"Everyone will have new parts there, so we will be able to say a bit more after that race."

Kubica said he felt that BMW had made the most of their opportunities in Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur, but were not yet the second best team.

"In Australia, we were second because Ferrari had obvious problems with Raikkonen in qualifying and they retired from the race," he said.

"But pace-wise, they were very strong. And in Malaysia, the penalty of five places for Hamilton and Kovalainen helped us a bit, but I still think during the race we were quite similar pace.

"I think it is changing, drifting a bit. But you have to be lucky with the set-up to get it right straight away, so you can extract the maximum performance.

"It is a bit of luck, but there were some circumstances as to why we were second. But it is important to be close to use opportunities."