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Kimi
Raikkonen sees no reason for Ferrari to lose belief that it can
get back to the front of the Formula 1 grid soon - despite its
disappointing performance at the Turkish Grand Prix.
Having
made a great deal of progress with its car since aerodynamic
developments, and a double-decker diffuser, were introduced at the
Spanish Grand Prix, the Italian team suffered a step back in
Turkey as it struggled to score points. Raikkonen admitted that
the Istanbul performance had been a setback, but felt that the
performance was no reason for heads to get down.
"The
team is continuing with its hard work improving the car and
closing the gap to the leaders: the situation is much better in
slow corners, where we are really competitive, while we're
suffering in the fast ones," Raikkonen told the official
Ferrari website. "We don't have any reason to give up; we
just need patience; that's what I've said before the race at
Istanbul. We do have the potential to achieve a good result, I
know it. I hope that everything will work out at Silverstone,
which is one of my preferred tracks. Ferrari has a good tradition
in this race and it would be great to keep to that."
Raikkonen
also confessed that the team had hoped for a better performance at
the Turkish GP weekend.
"We
definitely expected more from the Turkish GP and it doesn't make
any sense to hide it," he said. "We knew that the
situation would be complicated compared to the previous race at
Monaco, but after the good qualifying we didn't think that the
race would be so difficult. The start was decisive. At Istanbul,
but also at Monaco, it makes it very difficult when you have to
start from the dirty side of the track. And on both tracks the
first corner is very close to the starting line, so we can't even
exploit the advantage of the KERS there. I lost a position when
the lights went out and another one in the first corner. During
the duel with Alonso I touched his wheel with my front wing and
damaged it, losing downforce. We changed the nose during the pit
stop, but it was too late to improve. If that hadn't happened
maybe I would have gained a place in the points. We weren't fast
enough in the race, not only compared to the Brawn GPs and Red
Bulls, but also compared to the Williams and Toyotas, also due to
the high temperatures."
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