Raikkonen sure Ferrari will fix problems

The world champion was hit by trouble in qualifying, meaning he had to start from 15th place, and then retired from the race with an engine problem.

Raikkonen still managed to score a point for eighth place, but that was the only positive the Italian squad could extract from a disappointing weekend.

And although Raikkonen admits the reliability issues are a concern, he is sure Ferrari will work hard to solve them.

"The lack of reliability is a real problem for me now," the Finn said. "But I know that back in Maranello the team is working hard to solve our problems.

"I'm not worried at all about the performance and the competitiveness of the car. The first race was like it was, but we know that we have a really good car.

"We have to be constantly competitive during the weekend, because when you have to start from far behind, you get stuck in the traffic, just the way it happened at Melbourne.

"We had a good start, but it is difficult to overtake; you need to take some risks, especially when you have slower cars in front of you."

Raikkonen, who last year won the title by one point, welcomed the result after such a poor weekend, as he reckons that point could be crucial in the end.

"There's really not much to say about the first race weekend of the season: The only positive thing is, that it's all behind us," said Raikkonen.

"We had problems right from Saturday morning and we could not operate according to our plans. Obviously we are really disappointed.

"There's no point in knowing what we could have done on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, because in the end we would not have finished the race. We don't cry over spilled milk.

"It doesn't help anyway and would not change the result. Although, with all the problems we had, we still managed to get one point.

"So in the end one can always find a positive aspect in this Australian weekend. We'll see how important that single point will be by the end of the season."