Raikkonen wants improvement to fight for the title

Kimi Raikkonen has insisted that he needs to improve in his performances for the 2018 season and is eager to challenge for the driver's championship, following a 2017 campaign in which he failed to claim a single race victory, while his team-mate Sebastian Vettel got five.

Raikkonen won the 2007 championship and retains the support of Ferrari despite not winning a Grand Prix last year. Raikkonen admits himself that an improvement is needed, and it is important he challenges for the title this season.

"Obviously I want to be fighting for the championship this year," said Raikkonen.

"I think personally we started (2017) pretty badly -- we were not really happy with the setup and it took quite a long time to figure it out. After that it was better but then we had too many DNFs for different reasons.

"But I think as a team we came a long way, obviously not enough for what we want but I think we have all the tools. We just need to tidy up things and not make mistakes and not have issues on any side either as drivers or the team.

"Obviously we start from zero now so hopefully we will be up there," he added.

One change that is already certain for Raikkonen for the start of next season will be the introduction of a new race engineer as his engineer for the past three years, David Greenwood, left the position this week.