Kimi Raikkonen admits Alfa Romeo car felt “very strange” in recent races. Alfa team principal Fred Vasseur challenged the team to cut out recent mistakes.

Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen admitted that the Alfa Romeo car has felt “very strange” in recent races as the team has embarked on a disappointing run of three races without scoring a single point. Kimi Raikkonen was unable to finish higher than 14th in Spain, Monaco and Canada.

This weekend’s French Grand Prix gives Alfa Romeo Racing a chance to respond. Last season, under its Sauber guise, the team reached Q3 through Charles Leclerc, who went on to finish 10th. A new batch of parts will also boost Raikkonen and team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi – still to score at all this year – with Alfa trying to reverse a slump that has seen them sink to ninth in the constructors’ championship.

“Recently we struggled with grip and therefore we didn’t have enough speed,” Kimi said, ahead of the French weekend – “Some corners were fine, while in others the car felt very strange. We’re getting some new parts on the car for France so this should help us to get back to the performance we had at the beginning of the season.”

Alfa team principal Fred Vasseur challenged the team to cut out recent mistakes, saying their scoreless run cannot be put down solely to poor fortune. He said: “The last three races didn’t go to plan, but it would be too easy to put it down to bad luck or unfortunate circumstances. As a team we need to do fewer mistakes and we need to work harder, which we have done after coming back from Canada, to get the full potential out of our car. At the same time there is no reason to talk ourselves down, we’re showing fighting spirit and we’ll make the most of the developments we have lined up for the next few races. I am confident we can recover the speed we showed earlier in the season and get back in the fight for points.” – Alfa Romeo Team Principal Fred Vasseur concluded.