Kimi Raikkonen admitted today in advance of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix that his qualifying performance is an area that requires special focus.
After six rounds in the 2015 season Raikkonen has yet to qualify ahead of his team-mate Sebastian Vettel, while Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene commented in Monaco two weeks ago about giving Raikkonen qualifying “homework”.
Today though the Finn was frank that qualifying is a weakness of his that needs to be improved upon if he’s to achieve the best possible result on Sunday.
“Obviously I know where I have to improve,” he said, “nobody has to tell me and it’s a very easy thing to know, but we put ourselves in many difficult positions many Saturdays or Sundays.
“We have good speed usually in the race but if you’re starting where you shouldn’t obviously it makes it a very difficult race.
“We know what we are lacking and that is obviously to improve those areas, that should make the weekend a lot easier, and the end result much easier.”
While Raikkonen said that his qualifying woes are not down to a single factor, he did suggest that tyre management was significant among them.
“I don’t think there’s one [problem], obviously tyres is a big key to get them working in a proper way and that makes a massive difference. One some circuits it’s more easy and some more difficult.
“I’m sure we’ll get ahead of it, but it seems to be a bit tricky.”
