Kimi Raikkonen insists he is giving his all after Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne appeared to question his commitment.
Marchionne labelled Raikkonen “a bit of a laggard” ahead of Sunday’s Austrian GP, with the Finn consistently failing to match team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
He laboured to fifth place at the Red Bull Ring but, asked about Marchionne’s comments after the race, expressed his confidence that his fortunes will improve.
“Obviously I want to do well,” the 2007 world champion said. “My team wants to do well, and I can only do the best that I can. It’s not like I’m not trying.
“Unfortunately it’s not been very straightforward sometimes, but that’s part of the plan and we keep pushing and I’m sure things will work out better.”
Raikkonen was undercut by Lewis Hamilton after holding off the Mercedes during his first stint and though he showed good pace after pitting, he could not regain the place.
“Obviously I was hoping for better,” he admitted. “But I lost a few places at the start then struggled a little bit with the balance in the first part of the first stint.
“It was getting better but I never really could recover the good speed on the second set of tyres as I was too far behind. It’s not ideal, but that’s how it is.”
Raikkonen is currently fifth in the standings on 83 points, less than half the tally of championship leader Vettel.
