Ferrari: Räikkönen sees the light at the end of the tunnel

Dominated since the beginning of the season by his teammate Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen seemed to be having the greatest difficulties in understanding the behavior of his car and adapting to the driving style imposed by the new technical regulations that came into effect this year.

If the Finn has regularly scored points since Australia (7 times in 11 Grand Prix), he has not gone higher than 7th place, which is rather disappointing for his return to Ferrari. Certainly, the F14-T did not allow him to play a leading role, but these difficulties were highlighted by Alonso’s standout performances, both in qualifying and in races.

But in Hungary last weekend, after a disastrous qualifying session that placed him 16th on the grid, Räikkönen had a solid race, climbing up to a 6th place finish, his best result of the season, by avoiding all the pitfalls of a race full of twists and turns. Is this a sign of light at the end of the tunnel for the Finn? He spoke in this vein after the race to our colleagues at Autosport: “The race was much more enjoyable because I felt better with the car. It makes life easier and is more fun. You can attack and fight more rather than just defending and losing places. It was still difficult, but it was enjoyable and it really shows that we’re doing things the right way and that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel.”

But this surge of optimism is not naive, and the 2007 world champion knows there is still a long way to go for Ferrari to return to the top: « A good result does not change the overall problem. The car was running quite well but we need a bit more speed on the straights, especially against teams powered by Mercedes, which would allow us to overtake them on this type of track. We know we still have many things to improve: mechanical grip, downforce, power. »

Räikkönen therefore wants to temper his apparent enthusiasm about his single-seater by insisting that Ferrari cannot be satisfied with a 6th place to be happy: « Hungary and Monaco seem to have been better for us. But we still have a long way to go before we can say we are happy. The result was a bit better for me and the team scored more points, but actually, there haven’t been any big changes. We know where we stand and we know what we need to do, and there is still a lot to be done before we find ourselves where we want to be. »