Robert Kubica and his BMW-Sauber team are still counting themselves as an outside chance to win the 2008 drivers' world championship.

The Polish driver is 14 and 13 points respectively adrift Lewis Hamilton's tussle with Felipe Massa, but with four races to go, the mathematics mean the team would be wrong to squander their role as the dark horse.

23-year-old Kubica hit out at BMW's senior management recently, wondering aloud if they favoured getting teammate Nick Heidfeld back up to speed over pushing on with his own title challenge.

But team boss Mario Theissen is now adamant that the current situation is "still offering Robert the chance of making it to the very top in the world championships".

Kubica explained in Singapore on Thursday: "The situation is harder than it looks.

"Singapore is the best opportunity in the last four races to score important points, so if the car improves it will be much easier to challenge Hamilton and Massa."

Theissen is quick to point out, however, that Kubica's opportunity does not relegate Heidfeld to a lesser role.

"There is no hierarchy, meaning that we say one of our drivers is number one and the other is our number two, prior to a race," said the German.

"At the same time, it goes without saying that Robert can rely on our full support," Theissen added.

Source: GMM