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Raikkonen priming for Red Bull fight back

Kimi Raikkonen doesn't feel Ferrari is dwindling in its tussle with Red Bull for second in the standings after the former title-winning team edged ahead for the first time in 2016 ahead of the mid-season hiatus.

Following a difficult start to its 2016 campaign, Red Bull has generally had the measure of Ferrari since Max Verstappen's breakthrough win in the Spanish Grand Prix.

As such, the four-time title winning team has turned around a 19 point deficit into a 14 point advantage over the Scuderia heading into the summer break, capped off by a second and third place result in Germany.

Nevertheless, though Raikkonen admits it is frustrating to see Red Bull establish itself as Mercedes' closest rivals over the last few rounds, he is still confident Ferrari has the package to fight back when the season resumes in Belgium.

"Of course we want to win, so we have to beat everybody and that's always the aim in racing. We were ahead of Red Bull but now they're ahead of us, but I'm sure we found some tools and hopefully we can challenge both of them later on, but it's not going to be easy.

That's always the aim. Everybody can see where we finished, it's obviously a bit painful for all of us but this is where we are right now. We just have to work harder.

Indeed, Raikkonen feels Ferrari needs to focus its efforts on generating more downforce, an area where Red Bull is particularly strong.

"We really need more downforce to go faster and that will also make a big difference for the tyre life. Here tyre degradation was not a strong point for us, we were lacking overall speed too. There were moments during the race in which we could be very strong but they didn't last long enough. We need to find the tools for that."

Zdroj: crash.net