Q & A with Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen: At the beginning it wasn't too bad, but then I didn't really have any grip, so it was a bit hard to stay on the circuit and all the other cars were fast, so they got past me.

Q. Was is difficult to get the tyres up to the right temperature?

KR: I don't know if it's the temperature. The thing is we didn't have grip. It was aqua-planning and sliding and every time I touched a wet patch I just lost the front end grip. Overall it was very difficult. In the beginning was not too bad but then, like I said, when we put a lot of fuel and the new tyres it became more difficult.

Q. Did you have some problems with the engine?

KR: Some times I had something and it wasn't running very clearly but sometimes it can happen when you follow people and there's a lot of water and the spray affects it. But it cleared up after a moment.

Q. Three races with no points for Ferrari, what are your thoughts?

KR: Not good. We have made some mistakes but unfortunately we don't have the speed to be where we want to be right now. But for sure when we get to Barcelona and get some new parts we should improve quite a bit. If we had had a dry race today we would have scored some points.

We don't have enough grip in the dry but in the wet it seems to be even more difficult. We'll do the best that we can and I'm sure we are going to be back in a position to challenge for wins, but it will take a little while, so we just need to go through this hard time and we definitely going to get back.

Q. Is it difficult to find the motivation under this situation?

KR: It's nothing to do with motivation. Unfortunately we are not fast enough. It's not about people's motivation or that we don't try the best we can. But it will take a little while. It will not happen overnight. We know that once we get to Barcelona we should take a step with the car. Hopefully it will improve the situation and it has nothing to do with people not trying to do their best.

But it's not an easy sport to catch up and sometimes when you don't have what you want it just seems to be very difficult and everything seems to be against you. It's hard to get out of it, but like I said it takes a while and we need to get through that period and I'm sure that we are gong to be in a position to challenge. I don't know when, but hopefully sooner than later.

Q. Is this the worst situation you have been in your career?

KR: I've have had difficult seasons before and bad starts of the season before. It's a hard time for everybody, but this is racing. We try to improve and we try to do the best. It's not what we want, so people are not so happy sometimes and we get lots of bad publicity from the papers, but it doesn't stop us from trying and improving things. Like I said, it will improve at some point. We will get back there, but unfortunately we are not where we should be now.

Q. Where do you believe the problem lies?

KR: We probably don't have the same downforce as the others. When we get the new floor for sure we are going to get lots of downforce and it will make the car fast. In the dry the handling of the car is not too bad, but we are missing downforce through the corners. For sure it will make a massive difference.