Raikkonen sees no need to panic

Although Ferrari were widely expected to dominate the Sepang race following their dominant display in Australia, it was Fernando Alonso who took victory for McLaren, who scored a one-two thanks to Lewis Hamilton's second place.

Raikkonen, unable to match the pace of his rivals, had to settle for third.

And although Alonso and McLaren have moved into the lead in both championships, the Finn is staying calm.

"Like I said we are only two races into the championship. It is not time to start panicking," Raikkonen told reporters in Bahrain.

"I think what we had in the last race, it didn't make any sense to do any stupid things in the race. We will see how it goes here and work out what we are going to do later."

Alonso has insisted that Ferrari are still the team to beat despite the Malaysian Grand Prix result, but Raikkonen sees the situation differently after the Sepang race.

"Looking at the last race it seems not, but it changes very quickly," Raikkonen said. "Hopefully we can be at our own level again here and be challenging for the win. It is too difficult to say because the results of both races were so different. Let's wait until Sunday to see what happens here.

"I think they seem to be strong again this year. It is going to be hard to beat them, but that is why we are here. But we definitely have the car and the team to beat them. But it is early in the season so it can change a lot."

The Finn, who moved from McLaren at the end of last year, admitted he is enjoying life at Ferrari more than at the British team.

"I am more happy. I think I enjoy it more here," he added. "Every team has different working ways but I am happy here so I don't know if it is harder work or less work. There are so many different ways of looking at it. I am happy here so that is the main thing."