Kimi Räikkönen feels Scuderia Ferrari made the most of their pre-season testing programme, and the Finn is pretty happy and confident heading into the first race of the season this weekend in Australia.
Räikkönen says it will take a few races for Ferrari to find out where its SF71-H is in relation to their rivals, but he knows for both himself and the Maranello-based team to be in contention for the championships, they will need to hit the ground running, right from this weekend around Albert Park.
“We are pretty happy with how winter testing went; we have clearly done our homework, even if obviously there are always things that you can improve,” said Räikkönen. “Our aim is always the same, to win races. We’ll try our best and hopefully we’ll achieve that.
“Overtaking is quite difficult at this track, but the DRS zones are different this year and hopefully it will help. From this weekend and in the next few races we’ll start to understand where we are.
“We need to build up a solid weekend, score good points and then go from there. It’s going to be a long season and we need to be up there all the time to be able to challenge for the championships”.
Räikkönen says the introduction of the Halo will not make any difference to the drivers, who will quickly come to terms with it.
“This year’s cars are fitted with the Halo system: I don’t think that it makes any difference when driving as you get used to it very quickly,” insists the Finn.
