Kimi Raikkonen has insisted Ferrari still have the potential for strong results this season, despite a disappointing outing in last weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix. After strong progress in Barcelona and Monaco, the world champions came away from Istanbul with just three points.

Raikkonen admitted the team were bettered on race pace by more rivals than they’d have liked, but believes that with the F60’s slow-corner performance much improved, the team now just have to keep up the hard work to make the car truly competitive.

“We definitely expected more from the Turkish GP and it doesn’t make any sense to hide it,” the Finn - who finished ninth said. “We knew that the situation would be complicated compared to the previous race at Monaco, but after the good qualifying we didn’t think that the race would be so difficult.” Formula 1

“During the duel with Alonso I touched his wheel with my front wing and damaged it, loosing downforce. We changed the nose during the pit stop, but it was too late to improve.”

“If that hadn’t happened maybe I would have gained a place in the points. We weren’t fast enough in the race, not only compared to the Brawn GPs and Red Bulls, but also compared to the Williams and Toyotas, also due to the high temperatures.”

“The team is continuing with its hard work improving the car and closing the gap to the leaders: the situation is much better in slow corners, where we are really competitive, while we’re suffering in the fast ones,” he said.

“We don’t have any reason to give up, we just need patience; that’s what I’ve said before the race at Istanbul. We do have the potential to achieve a good result, I know it.”

“I hope that everything will work out at Silverstone, which is one of my preferred tracks. Ferrari has a good tradition in this race and it would be great to keep to that.” Sky Sports