Ferrari F1 pressure affecting Kimi Raikkonen, says Felipe Massa

Raikkonen has had a tough start to the 2015 F1 season in the improved SF15-T, qualifying behind new team-mate Sebastian Vettel for seven of the eight races held so far and trailing him by 48 points in the championship.

There has also been speculation about the Finn's future in F1, following two particularly difficult races in Canada and Austria, where Raikkonen spun away a podium in Montreal and then crashed out on the first lap at the Red Bull Ring after being eliminated in Q1.

Williams driver Massa, who was replaced by Raikkonen at Ferrari after the 2013 season and was his team-mate there from 2007-09, said his rival's difficulties were down to negative pressure affecting his mentality.

"Definitely, he's suffering more with the pressure than other things," said Massa, when asked by AUTOSPORT about Raikkonen's current predicament.

"Like everybody says, 'the Iceman', he's not really like that.

"For sure, he can suffer as well with the pressure and he's shown that in some results.

"So he just needs to relax and do his best, because he's definitely a big talent and can do a lot better than what he's doing."

Massa said the expectation of driving for a team as big as Ferrari makes the pressure even more difficult to deal with when results are not going your way.

"Ferrari is a big company, so every day you are in the media, for good or for bad," he added.

"Sometimes this is not helping the driver.

"Sometimes this is not helping even the team to control the driver in the best way as well.

"But definitely we know that Ferrari is one of the biggest teams - it's the [most] famous team in Formula 1, so definitely you have a lot more pressure than maybe in another team."