Raikkonen issues not down to regulations

Kimi Raikkonen says the problems he is facing with Ferrari so far this season are not down to the 2014 regulations
Raikkonen issues not down to regulations

Kimi Raikkonen says the problems he is facing with Ferrari so far this season are not down to the 2014 regulations.

Having moved from Lotus to Ferrari, Raikkonen has struggled compared to team-mate Fernando Alonso, scoring 19 points to Alonso's 97, with a best finish of seventh in the Australian and Spanish grands prix. While Raikkonen admits he's still struggling to feel comfortable with the Ferrari, he says it's a car-specific issue.

"I don't think it's the regulations," Raikkonen said. "In my view I don't think it is that much different to the way you drive than last year's car. Obviously it's a different team, different car design and certain things are slightly different to how it was in the past. The biggest difference is that it's not to my liking, and unfortunately these are not easy things to change.

"I'm sure we can turn it around and sometimes there is a good feeling but it doesn't last long. Last weekend was a better feeling again and we changed something and got something new in the car so hopefully that will start putting us in the right direction and we will get to where we should be."

However, Raikkonen said he felt he was making progress in Germany last week despite only scoring one point in tenth place.

"Overall it was a bit better and a lot more to my liking over the weekend. But I did qualifying and we were a bit out of position compared to where I think we should have been. Then you end up between the cars fighting and we got damaged twice on the front wing and I think that compromised our race a lot.

"Probably we should have done different things on the tactics, but that's how it went. There were some good times and hopefully that's happening more and we can keep it all the time."

And Raikkonen believes Hungary could be a better circuit for Ferrari than recent tracks.

"It's a different circuit more close to Monaco than the other place. We were having quite a good race there but obviously we have to see if we get that good feeling and get the car where we want and have that good feeling without any issues in practice to try things however we want.

"We will have to see tomorrow, but usually it is a good race and even this twisty track where people say you can't overtake, we have seen in the past that it can change a lot in the race after qualifying. We'll see how it goes."

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