Raikkonen still baffled by Germany slump

The Finn is baffled about why he could not find a good balance on his car at Hockenheim last weekend as he limped home in sixth place - losing ground in the title chase to Lewis Hamilton.

And with no immediate answers for the lack of pace, Raikkonen believes only a detailed examination of what happened will bring forth an explanation that will help them ensure there is no repeat of their troubles.

"It's obvious that the situation has changed," Raikkonen said. "I'm seven points behind in the standings, as I was after the Canadian GP.

"We have to check and analyze every single detail we've done during the preparations for Hockenheim and find out why we went so slowly, because there has to be something that didn't work properly.

"Sometimes these things happen, when you want to improve the car. I'm confident: we'll have a F2008 that can fight for the win again soon."

He added: "The situation is quite complicated, but nothing is lost: We have to stay calm and react the way we know how to. The desire to win hasn't decreased at all: last year I had a period of six consecutive races without a success and the same things is happening this year. Let's hope that seven is my lucky number also this time, and that I can get back to success immediately."

Raikkonen said that the Hockenheim weekend was his hardest of the season, and he remains at a loss to explain matters.

"I left Germany after a race weekend with the same feeling I had many times in the past: the best thing is that the weekend is over. It was certainly the most difficult weekend of the year: a horrible Friday, an even more complicated Saturday and a very bad Sunday.

"During the tests on this track the week before the car went pretty well, at least that was the feeling we got. In the race it seemed as we were in a different place. We never managed to find a good set up and the car had absolutely no stability.

"You need good grip to drive good lap times at Hockenheim, but the rear went all over the place for the whole race. It's true that we had some problems at the beginning of the season to set up the car as I wanted, but we never had problems like we had at Hockenheim.

"When you're lacking grip in the rear you can't go fast enough to fight for the top positions. For a couple of laps, especially in the end, the situation seemed to improve a bit, but it never went as it should have."