Raikkonen pins hopes on Bahrain GP upgrades to improve F1 form

The Finn has struggled with the front end of his Ferrari in the first two races of the season.

He showed improved form through practice and qualifying for round two in Malaysia last weekend, before contact early in the race from Kevin Magnussen's McLaren ruined his chances.

Raikkonen says Ferrari is bringing new parts to his car for this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix and he is hopeful they will finally allow him to drive the F14 T in the way he would like.

"The car was very similar to the last race, but the circuit layout worked a bit better for our overall situation," said Raikkonen of his performance in Malaysia.

"For the next race we should get some new parts and be happier with the front end and drive a bit more how I want.

"The front end should feel a bit nicer after that, but we have to wait and see how we do on Friday and go from there.

"From the [pre-season] test [in Bahrain] I know there were some difficulties with the handling, but hopefully with some new parts we can sort that out and be even happier with the car than we were here.

"I think we have a pretty good understanding of what we want to do and where we want to go to make the feeling better and we can go much faster if we make that happen.

"The good thing is we did much better here [in Malaysia]. Obviously the results didn't show that but it's nice we're going in the right direction."