Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen believes that average results in Formula 1 this season are masking his pure pace, claiming he still “has the speed” to compete among the front group.
Räikkönen holds fifth position in the standings at the mid-point of the campaign, 86 points behind Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who has taken four wins to the Finn’s zero.
Räikkönen, though, maintains that he has sufficient pace to challenge among the leaders, but suggested stringing together a race weekend has been a relative weakness.
“If you purely look at the end results, it's not been very good," Räikkönen said of his 2017 campaign so far.
“On the other side, I think we've been quite happy in some places, not so happy in others; that shows in the results.
“Personally, obviously I'm not happy with the results, that's for sure. I want to win races and I want to be up there all the time.
“It's definitely not been the case this year, too often, but I know when things are correct.
“I think driving wise I have the speed, so I'm not worried about that; it's putting things in the correct places."
Räikkönen added: “There are always good things in every weekend, there might be bad things in every weekend.
“It's just [that] you try to minimise the bad times and maximise the good ones.
“It's easy to look only at the result and say, 'this was good, this was bad'."
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