Raikkonen not giving up on Mercedes challenge

Kimi Raikkonen insists Ferrari “will not give up” challenging Mercedes nor switch its focus to Red Bull despite the Scuderia entering this weekend’s German Grand Prix 154 points behind the former and only one ahead of the latter.

On the back of a tough outing at Silverstone, Ferrari delivered a better performance in Hungary last Sunday but once again failed to place one of its drivers on the podium.

With the 2016 F1 campaign now at the halfway mark, the Italian team is still looking for a first win and Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has been ramping up the pressure at Maranello in recent weeks.

“For sure we have areas where we know we have to improve, but those are not easy areas to fix,” Raikkonen said. “We had more speed than Red Bull [in Budapest], but from where we started we were handicapped a lot.

“We have some circuits where we’re better, but for sure [Red Bull] have improved a lot. Is it their car? Is it their engine? I think it’s a combination of both, but I still believe we’ve made good steps since the start of the season, but obviously not big enough.

“Our aim is not them, our aim is Mercedes, we keep fighting, try to improve things and hopefully we’ll be in the position where we want to be – that’s in the front but it will take a lot of work, patience and time, but we’ll not give up.”

Raikkonen is currently the highest-placed Ferrari driver in the standings, with the Finn occupying fourth position 78 points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

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