Kimi Raikkonen was happy with the behaviour of his car during qualifying for the German Grand Prix on Saturday, but felt his Scuderia Ferrari team are lacking downforce that would enable them to be quicker.
The Finn qualified fifth around the Hockenheimring, 0.779 seconds down on the pole time set by Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, but Raikkonen felt there were no handling issues with his SF16-H, and although disappointed to be as low as fifth, knows that’s where Ferrari are at present, at least in qualifying trim.
“Our car was behaving pretty nicely today and I was happy with the handling,” said Raikkonen. “My last try in Q3 was a bit more tricky, I was struggling a little bit with the feeling from the tires, but apart from that we had no massive issues.
“I don’t have much to complain from the behaviour of the car, we are just lacking speed overall. We need to put more downforce in the car to go faster. This result is disappointing, finishing fifth and sixth it’s not ideal, but this is what it is right now, and we keep working to improve.”
Raikkonen is hoping the trend of Ferrari being stronger on race day than in qualifying continues at Hockenheim on Sunday, and is eager to take the fight to the four drivers ahead of him on the grid.
“Usually the race is our stronger side, but every circuit is different,” said Raikkonen. “Tomorrow it’s a new day, we’ll do our own race, you never know what is going to happen.
“We need to make a good getaway from the start and hopefully take the fight to the guys in front, and then do our best.”
