With just 26 points and one podium after eight races, Ferrari have endured a difficult first half of the season and are 65 points shy of where they were this time last year. For driver Kimi Raikkonen the time has come to admit a win will be highly unlikely at this weekend's German Grand Prix and a podium finish will be his real target.

“Realistically this year our objective can’t be a win,” said Raikkonen on Ferrari’s official website. “We still have to make up ground compared to the leaders as far as performance is concerned. It’s always difficult making predictions and promising something to the fans, but for us today a place on the podium is already a good result, considering that we’ve been there just once this year.

“There are still nine races until the end of this extremely difficult season for us. Our objective has to be to give it our all race after race, without thinking that the leaders are so many points ahead of us. I really trust the team’s work and its capacity to close the gap between us and the leaders.”

At the previous round, June’s British Grand Prix, the Finn qualified in ninth and finished one place higher in eighth to score a point. But after crossing the line over a minute down on the victorious Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel, the Italian team had little reason to celebrate and have been back at their Maranello factory seeking to improve the errant F60 ahead of this weekend’s German event.

“The team has continued to work very hard over the last weeks to bring some new solutions to this race,” Raikkonen continued. “The track should be better for the F60’s characteristics than Silverstone, but we’ll get a clearer picture during Friday’s free practice sessions. To be competitive you need a car with good traction, which is very stable while braking.”

While his faith in his car’s suitability for the Nurburgring may prove well founded, Raikkonen’s record in Germany leaves a lot to be desired. Despite scoring pole on four occasions, he has never won on German soil, and with his declared objectives for this weekend's race, it doesn't look like he will remedy this in 2009.