Raikkonen: Alfa Romeo can battle 'with everyone in the midfield'

Kimi Raikkonen says Alfa Romeo can fight with all its F1 midfield rivals as the Swiss outfit improves with each passing race.

So far, Alfa Romeo only has a singled point to its credit in the Constructors' championship, thanks to Antonio Giovinazzi's P10 finish last time out in Monaco.

But Raikkonen believes his team is slowly but surely improving, and the Finn sees a good chance of the Hinwil squad adding to its tally in Baku if it makes the most of the weekend's sessions.

"It’s nice to see the team getting stronger with each race and I hope this weekend can be a good one for us," said Raikkonen in Alfa's Azerbaijan Grand Prix preview.

"Races in Baku can be very chaotic and it’s always a good chance to get a good result if we do our job properly.

"We know what we have to do – get the most from every session, from Friday to Sunday: we have shown we can battle with everyone in the midfield so let’s see how it goes."

Alfa team boss Frédéric Vasseur says that Giovinazzi's points-scoring performance in Monaco was a confidence booster and a break-through of sorts for his outfit.

“We approach the next race full of confidence in our team, our car and our chances," said Vasseur.

"Breaking our duck and scoring a point in Monaco has been important, mostly from the psychological side, as we finally had a weekend where bad luck didn’t hamper our progression.

• Read also: Giovinazzi 'no longer needs Raikkonen as reference'

"We still feel a bit of disappointment as we know we could have finished even higher up the road, but this just shows how much potential we still have.

"We come to Baku ready to continue placing our cars in Q2 and beyond, have another good race and hopefully bring home another strong result."

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