Raikkonen dismisses street circuit concerns

Kimi Raikkonen insists he has no problems racing on street circuits despite his struggles during the Monaco Grand Prix.

After Raikkonen retired early in Monaco this season, Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene claimed his driver simply didn't like the Monte Carlo circuit and that the team accepted his difficulties. When asked how he feels about street circuits in general ahead of this weekend's inaugural race on the Baku City Circuit, Raikkonen replied: "It’s nothing to do with the place or the circuit.

"When you get things running smoothly street circuits are nice places, but they’re not the easiest places to get things as you want because there’s no room for mistake, locking a wheel, going a bit wide, because that will finish your session straight away.

"When things are running smoothly they’re very nice places, very challenging and fun to drive. But when you are struggling with the set-up, it’s not easiest because you need a good feeling from the car to be fast in street circuit. If that feeling is not there, they’re not such great places to be in."

Having failed to match team-mate Vettel's performance in Canada, Raikkonen says getting the car set-up as he wishes contributes a huge deal to his confidence.

"We need to do a better job. Obviously Monaco was what it was, and the last race wasn’t an easy one, it wasn’t ideal where we finished but it was something. We need to make sure we get the car to where we want it to be, make the tyres work as we want and then I’m sure we’ll be OK. We struggled a bit in the last few races, it hasn’t been easy, but it’s a new weekend and a new place.

"I know if we get things as we want we will be fast, but it’s a case of getting what we want. That makes it a hell of a lot of difference when the car is where we want it to be with the set-up. That’s the aim but with a new circuit it’s always tricky but it’s the same for everybody. I think we have a good package but we need to get it as we want it."

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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.