Ferrari team principal Marco Mattiacci says the team is seeing Kimi Raikkonen’s pace improving even if the results are yet to follow.
Since Raikkonen finished fourth in the Belgian Grand Prix he has appeared more competitive at most races but is only able to boast a best finish since then of eighth place. While the results have not been impressive, Mattiacci says Ferrari can see the reasons that have prevented Raikkonen from scoring more points but has noted the step up in pace.
“There have been a series of events,” Mattiacci said. “[In Sochi] Kimi had good pace but unfortunately the start was not a happy start. [Daniil] Kvyat pushed him backwards, so he had a different race to catch up but definitely we see the pace of Kimi improving.
“So does it translate immediately to more points during the race? It’s evident it does not. But there are a series of events that didn’t allow this. But he’s keeping the pace and increasing the speed.”
Raikkonen himself said he has been learning from his tough season and has felt the difference in competitiveness in recent races.
“For sure you learn things but obviously I learned a lot of things in the past and I learned also that sometimes we have difficult times,” Raikkonen said. “The key is to keep working and trying to improve things and get things sorted out. There has been many, many small things that have cost us a lot of points and made our life very difficult.
“Lately we have had some success at improving things and for sure the car has improved a lot since the beginning of the year. The direction is right but obviously it doesn’t help much right now. The season has been disappointing overall but I have full belief in all the people and I’m sure we can be much, much better and where we should be next year.”
[ Source: crash.net ]
KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN SPACE 