Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

New Ferrari ‘a completely different story’ - Raikkonen

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Kimi Raikkonen says the Ferrari SF15-T is an all-round better car than last year’s design.

Ferrari endured its first winless season since 1993 last year, with Fernando Alonso managing just two podiums while Raikkonen finished no higher than fourth. However, after finishing second quickest on his first day in the 2015 car, Raikkonen is pleased that there is a clear step forward from this year’s chassis.

"The whole team has done a very good over the winter,” Raikkonen said. "It was a positive first day, with a lot of improvements in areas we had difficulties, so big thanks to the team to have built a reasonable car and a good starting point.

"The whole package is quite a bit better from where we finished last year. We've improved in all areas. We've still things to improve, but it's definitely a positive start and we have something to work with.”

Comparing his first day in the new car to the same stage last year, Raikkonen admitted: "It's a lot different.

"You usually know if a car is good or not good, and this year is a completely different story than last year, so it's been a positive start. I had a good feeling straightaway when I went out, and I knew some stuff from Sebastian, but so far so good."

Click here for the full gallery from day three of testing at Jerez

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.