Raikkonen: No reason to give up

Having made a great deal of progress with its car since aerodynamic developments, and a double-decker diffuser, were introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix, the Italian team suffered a step back in Turkey as it struggled to score points.

Raikkonen admitted that the Istanbul performance had been a setback, but felt that the performance was no reason for heads to get down.

"The team is continuing with its hard work improving the car and closing the gap to the leaders: the situation is much better in slow corners, where we are really competitive, while we're suffering in the fast ones," Raikkonen told the official Ferrari website.

"We don't have any reason to give up; we just need patience; that's what I've said before the race at Istanbul. We do have the potential to achieve a good result, I know it.

"I hope that everything will work out at Silverstone, which is one of my preferred tracks. Ferrari has a good tradition in this race and it would be great to keep to that."

Raikkonen also confessed that the team had hoped for a better performance at the Turkish GP weekend.

"We definitely expected more from the Turkish GP and it doesn't make any sense to hide it," he said. "We knew that the situation would be complicated compared to the previous race at Monaco, but after the good qualifying we didn't think that the race would be so difficult.

"The start was decisive. At Istanbul, but also at Monaco, it makes it very difficult when you have to start from the dirty side of the track. And on both tracks the first corner is very close to the starting line, so we can't even exploit the advantage of the KERS there. I lost a position when the lights went out and another one in the first corner.

"During the duel with Alonso I touched his wheel with my front wing and damaged it, losing downforce. We changed the nose during the pit stop, but it was too late to improve. If that hadn't happened maybe I would have gained a place in the points.

"We weren't fast enough in the race, not only compared to the Brawn GPs and Red Bulls, but also compared to the Williams and Toyotas, also due to the high temperatures."