Kimi Raikkonen has urged the Lotus team to throw everything at developing its E21 to ensure they can compete with Sebastian Vettel.
The Finn assessed his start to the season as ‘okay’ despite winning the opening race and taking a further two podiums to put him second in the drivers’ championship.
However he remains ten points adrift of the Red Bull driver who leads having won two races.
“For sure it’s an okay start and we’re in a better position than this time last year, but there’s a long season ahead and it’s too early to say if we can fight for the Championships right to the end,” said Raikkonen.
“It’s going to be hard to catch Sebastian if he keeps taking good results so we need to start taking more points from him, but you never know what can happen. We’ll keep pushing to improve the car and see where we end up.”
Raikkonen is counting on an improved qualifying performance in the coming races – which he believes will give him a better chance to challenge for victories.
“To catch the leaders, we have to work twice as hard as they are,” he explained. “It’s no secret that we want more speed from the car in qualifying; it’s so tight up there at the front and we really need to be on the first two rows to fight for victories every time.”
