Kimi Raikkonen hasn’t ruled out pushing for the title in 2012, but says Lotus must improve in certain areas if they’re to continue challenging at the front.
The Finn, who returned to the sport this season after a two year absence, admits it’s still early days and issues were to be expected during a comeback year.
“I have no reason to say I wouldn’t try [for the title],” said Raikkonen. “I’m not here just to drive around. But I have no idea if we’re going to be up there in the end or not.
“We know that we have to improve on certain things,” he added. “Obviously we are not happy with how things have gone in all the weekends, but I have to say that I was expecting that – I didn’t think that suddenly everything would be perfect when you come in.
“It’s still quite early days in the season so we are still up there and we just have to get a bit more higher up and see what happens.”
The team currently lie third in the championship behind Red Bull and Ferrari and many believe these two teams are beginning to open a gap, but Raikkonen believes Lotus’s pace shouldn’t be judged on the last race.
“I got a pretty decent start in the last race but then I ran a little bit too fast in the left hander at turn four so I went over the kerb and I lost two places,” he explained. “So without that I’m sure we would have had the speed to fight at the front but we just ended up in the last two races losing out at the start for different reasons and it’s not easy to get passed so if you put yourself in the wrong position you cannot use the speed.”
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