Reliability not a concern for Raikkonen

The Finnish driver was forced out of the Barcelona race when he looked set for a podium finish, meaning he left the Spanish track eight points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

It was Raikkonen's first retirement since he began racing for Ferrari at the start of the season.

However, speaking ahead of this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix, Raikkonen said reliability is not a concern for him, and insisted there is still a long way to go before the championship is decided.

"It's true that I have not been so happy with the car at times, but I feel that things are starting to get better now," said the Finn at Monte Carlo. "We have only had four races so far which means there is a long way to go still.

"And with the races so close at the front the points gap between the four of us is not so big, so hopefully I can catch up.

"Yes, it was unfortunate to retire in Spain, but reliability is not an issue. We understand the problem I had in Barcelona and have fixed it and I do not expect it to happen again and as for the problems in testing last week, they arose simply because we were trying so many new things.

"Anyway, we knew already in Australia that our F2007 was not yet one hundred percent, so I am not surprised there have been a few problems. We do not get to do so much testing with the new rules and some times, when we have found a good set-up on the car in testing, it is not the same when we come to race a few days later.

"But I am not worried about reliability and with a long season ahead of us, I will keep fighting and then we will see what happens. Bad luck is part of racing, but I am not new to this sport and I know that sometimes you have to accept it.

"The Spanish GP was not the first time I have retired from a race and it will not be the last."