Raikkonen needs more time, says Brawn

The Finn driver left the McLaren team at the end of last year after five seasons, and replaced seven-time champion Michael Schumacher as Felipe Massa's teammate at the Italian squad.

Raikkonen's speed has been somewhat overshadowed by Massa's impressive pace in winter testing and in qualifying in the first races of the season, although the Finn is currently tied in the lead of the championship.

Brawn reckons Raikkonen is yet to fully acclimatise to Ferrari, but the Briton is predicting a fascinating battle between the pair in 2007.

"Felipe was very good at the end of last year and from what I understand he has progressed well over the winter," Brawn told Autosport magazine. "He is very strong opposition because he knows the tyres, he knows the car, he knows the team.

"Kimi is very quick, but he needs a bit more time to get to the same level as Felipe.

"When you get intelligent guys who work with the tyres, with the car and the team you are not going to step right in and operate at quite the same level. You will take a little time to come up to that.

"It's a fascinating battle and I think we'll see lots of ups and downs in that battle before the end of the year. It's a great start to the season."

Brawn also praised McLaren's Lewis Hamilton following the British driver's sensational start to life in Formula One, although the former technical director admitted he was not particularly surprised by the rookie driver's showing after his stellar performances in other series.

"I wouldn't say surprised," Brawn added. "We saw some of the stuff he was doing in GP2. It was exceptional and nobody else was doing that, and nobody had done that for a long time. You just didn't know whether that would translate to F1 and it seems to have done.

"There's again ideas and theories about the swap from Michelins to Bridgestones for (Fernando) Alonso and Kimi, and that maybe it's taking a little while to adjust to. Bahrain is a hard-braking circuit. It's where the differences between the Bridgestones and Michelins will have been most prevalent.

"Whether Kimi and Fernando haven't adjusted to those changes, it's a theory. We'll see a lot of twists and turns in that battle. But for Lewis it's been a great performance. It's going to be fascinating to watch the rest of the year. Quite exceptional, really." 

This week's Autosport features highlights of a Ross Brawn interview carried out at a Motorsport Industry Association dinner held at Woburn Abbey last week. Don't miss the Ferrari strategy guru's thoughts on 30 years in motorsport.