Kimi Raikkonen says Ferrari can still challenge for this year’s Formula One title despite the Scuderia entering this weekend’s British Grand Prix without any victory to its name in 2016.
Ferrari is trailing Mercedes by 103 points in the Contructors’ championship, while Raikkonen is level on points with team-mate Sebastian Vettel on 96, which leaves them 57 points adrift of Nico Rosberg with 12 races to go.
“I don’t see any reason why we cannot fight for the title as there are an awful lot of points still on the table,” said the Finn. “We hoped to be in a better position but this is where we are.
“We go to every race to try and maximise what we have and at the end of the year we’ll see where we end up. I’m sure we can win races this year and we’ll fight for the championship until it’s possible – that’s 100 per cent certain.”
The Silverstone event also marks an important milestone for Raikkonen, as the 2007 world champion prepares to make his 100th start for Ferrari.
The 36-year-old won the his sole F1 title the very same season he joined Maranello from McLaren. He then stayed until 2009 before returning for a second spell in Italy from 2014.
“Actually 100 races don’t sound like a lot but it’s a lot of years and it’s the best team in Formula One, in my view. It’s the most famous name in Formula One and to sum up my years, I won the title with Ferrari.
“We’ve had some good years, some difficult years, but to be part of a company like Ferrari doesn’t happen to everybody. I’m very happy to be part of Ferrari and, hopefully, for the future also. Hopefully we’ll get Ferrari back to where it belongs – at the top.”
Raikkonen's current contract expires at the end of the current campaign, with Ferrari's most recent F1 champion keen to prolong his stay with the team.
Chris Medland's 2016 British Grand Prix preview
From the cockpit: Felipe Nasr on back-to-back races
Scene at the Austrian Grand Prix
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
Formula 1’s most polished powerbroker has seen this movie before – and Stefano Domenicali is…
Max Verstappen’s racing curiosity has never been confined to Formula 1 – and now, one…
When F1’s radically redesigned 2026 cars finally roll out in Barcelona at the end of…
Max Verstappen has never been one to sugar-coat reality – and as Formula 1 braces…
Ferrari have survived decades of criticism about strategy calls, driver politics and pit stops that…
While the paddock has been whispering for months that Mercedes might be holding the winning…