Critics need to look beyond results - Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen says critics need to look beyond his results to see how well he is performing at Ferrari this season.

The Finn's future is uncertain with Ferrari holding an option for 2016 which it has yet to take up, and recent reports claiming an approach has been made for Valtteri Bottas. Raikkonen is 84 points behind team-mate Sebastian Vettel after retiring from second place in Hungary, with Vettel going on to take victory.

After the race, Vettel says he felt bad for his team-mate to suffer reliability issues after recent "bullshit" over his future, and Raikkonen is wary of being judged solely on points.

"It was great for [Vettel] and it’s a good thing for the team that he won," Raikkonen said. "It would have been nice to be first and second, but in the end it’s what happens.

"People can look at it two ways, they can look that we did well or they can just look at the result. It depends which way you look, I feel that we have the speed and we have a lot of things we just keep going against us.

"It doesn’t look great but there are a lot of positive things and obviously when we have issues, we have issues and it’s not great. Obviously we have to somehow change that and we still have a great team capable of great results, but we have to finish the race first and that’s how it is today."

Felipe Nasr's exclusive F1i column: From the cockpit

Click here for F1i's driver ratings following the Hungarian Grand Prix

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.

Recent Posts

Horner: Max 'answered critics' with epic Sao Paulo GP drive

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner hailed Max Verstappen’s sensational Sao Paulo Grand Prix victory…

2 mins ago

Sainz left puzzled by double crash drama in rainy São Paulo

Carlos Sainz was left scratching his head after a disastrous Sunday at the Sao Paulo…

1 hour ago

Alonso pushed through agonizing pain to complete Sao Paulo GP

Fernando Alonso braved both physical agony and mechanical challenges in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix,…

3 hours ago

Alpine double-podium in Brazil could deliver $30 million windfall

Alpine’s remarkable double podium at the São Paulo Grand Prix with Esteban Ocon and Pierre…

17 hours ago

F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2024 São Paulo GP

Alexander Albon, Williams (Did Not Start): 5.5/10 Alex Albon is definitely going through something of…

19 hours ago

Jos Verstappen rips British media after Brazilian Max fest

Jos Verstappen wasted no time after his son spectacular win at the São Paulo Grand…

20 hours ago