Kimi: I can easily go a lot faster

Kimi Raikkonen admits his frustrations are growing with recurring issues on his Ferrari because he says he “can easily go a lot faster”.

Raikkonen has bemoaned front end issues throughout this season and said in Austin that it was still a problem for him despite being close to team-mate Fernando Alonso’s time in qualifying. Raikkonen said he knew where the time was being lost and said he still feels a long way off the pace he believes he is capable of.

“I struggled with the first sector all the time because there are some issues,” Raikkonen said. “I know that if we get things right I can easily go a lot faster but this is what we have right now and we have to make the best out of it.

“It’s frustrating to keep having similar stories and issues but we all try to fix it, find solutions and I know that it’s not a disaster like this but it’s far away from what I want. If we get things right I’m sure we can be a lot happier and a lot faster but right now it is what it is and we try to make the maximum. But as always with problems it’s tricky to put one lap together because the high-speed changes of direction it’s not easy to keep the car on the right line when it’s not really doing exactly what you ask.”

While Raikkonen said the problems would not be so pronounced in the race he says the car isn’t really capable of making up for its shortcomings due to a lack of straight-line speed.

“Hopefully [it will be better], but obviously qualifying is very important and we are lacking a bit of speed in some places so it’s not easy to try to gain places. In qualifying you try to push a lot and it kind of doubles the problems because you’re really asking a lot from the tyres and from the car. In the race it’s a bit more calm with the fuel in. [Friday] felt OK on the long run but the race is a different story with other cars around.”

| Source: crash.net |