Raikkonen hopes McLaren learned a lesson

The Finn knows that his team's decision to opt for speed over reliability with their MP4-20 this season eased rival Fernando Alonso's charge to the title - and he is keeping his fingers crossed that McLaren will not make the same mistakes again.

"You can always learn every time you race, but hopefully we don't need to learn anymore," he told autosport.com after capturing the International Racing Driver of the Year trophy at the Autosport Awards.

"I hope we know what we are doing now. I think so, anyway. I guess if we can just make the car last then we should be alright."

Raikkonen has stayed away from any F1 commitments since the end of the season and claims that his time off has helped ease some of the frustration he felt at the end of the year at missing out on the title.

When asked whether he was still disappointed about how the season turned out, he said: "Not maybe anymore. You always want to try and win it and you will always remember it, but there is nothing that we can change anymore.

"We try to learn from our mistakes and we will try to do better next year."

And although the recognition he got from Autosport readers in being awarded the International Racing Driver of the Year will not make up for missing out on the title, he is at least thankful that his efforts have been recognised.

"Of course it is always nice to win trophies like this, especially not having maybe the best season that we wanted," he explained. "But I have at least won this, so at least some people have noticed what I did."

Raikkonen is not due to test again until after the Christmas break.