Kimi Raikkonen says Ferrari’s failure to win after the first six races of the 2016 F1 season has masked the fact that the SF16-H is “a lot better” than last year’s car.
The Scuderia experienced another somewhat disappointing weekend in Monaco, with Sebastian Vettel finishing fourth while his Finnish team-mate suffered an early retirement after breaking his front wing at the Loews hairpin.
Having secured three victories in 2015, Ferrari entered the current campaign as Mercedes’ nearest rivals but has yet to hit its stride and seen Red Bull move past it in the competitive order. Raikkonen claims critics should look past end results to assess Maranello’s performance.
“People are saying we’re not doing as well as last year,” the 2007 world champion said. “If you look just at wins, then we’re not, but that doesn’t really tell you the big picture. I’m sure we have a lot of a better package than last year, but other teams have improved and we’re not where we want to be.
“But that’s part of Formula One, we always want to improve, we want to be in a position to challenge for first place in every race. When you say it’s worst than last year, that’s only if you look at certain results, but I’m sure we have a lot a better package.”
Despite his tough Monaco experience, Raikkonen still leads team-mate Vettel in the Drivers’ championship after delivering strong results in the opening third of the season.
“I think from my side it has been better,” the 36-year-old added. “Obviously this weekend has been very bad, but that’s how it went and we go for the next race.
“We keep working and even after a difficult weekend we know we can certainly do a lot better in the next race. Until we’re 1-2 in every weekend we cannot be happy, but that’s out goal and hopefully we’ll get there some time soon.”
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