While his Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel has two wins in three starts, Kimi Raikkonen has yet to step on the podium this year and he admits he has taken too long to come to terms with the SF70-H.
Raikkonen who finished fourth in Bahrain, albeit 22 seconds adrift of the winning Ferrari, admitted, “To be honest, it has taken way too long! It wasn’t possible to get it right straight away and we still haven’t, for a lot of reasons. It didn’t help that in China we didn’t drive in the first day of practice, because when you’re going through some issues you want to get track time.”
“I’m pretty happy with the car now and [after qualifying in Bahrain], on one lap pace, it was just small things. I feel that we are doing the right things and, in the race, I felt the car was really good but I made a mess of the first lap, so I put myself in a difficult position. It’s not the ideal way to start the race.”
“Looking at the big picture we are pretty much where we want to be, we need to fine-tune a few things and also putting the lap together in qualifying. I don’t think they are big things but, obviously, they have cost us a lot of time.
“First of all it’s taking too long, in my view, but there’s no point in complaining, this is my job. I think we are more or less there but have to do even better – as always, we always try to improve – and if you’re running at the front the race becomes an awful lot easier,” added Raikkonen.
The Finn is keen to stay with Ferrari for at least another season, but pressure is mounting to have him replaced and thus results are key to Raikkonen’s future in Formula 1.
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