Raikkonen: Alfa Romeo's recent races have been a nightmare

Kimi Raikkonen has taken responsibility for his poor outing at the Russian Grand Prix after his false start led to a drive-thru penalty, but is eager for Alfa Romeo to bounce back after numerous “nightmare” races.

Over the past few events, Raikkonen has finished 13th in Russia, 16th in Belgium, and 15th in Italy, while he failed to finish the Singapore GP altogether.

After a period with only a handful of points gained, mostly through Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo are down in eighth in the constructors’ championship, and Raikkonen has urged the team to work together to stop the rot.

"The race was my fault even though in the end we got back in a race with the safety cars and managed to unlap ourselves,” he admitted after the race in Sochi.

"Unfortunately we just didn't have enough speed.

"We could just hang on with Toro Rosso, and I got past because they [Kvyat and Gasly] were fighting with each other and he [Gasly] ran wide.

"But we need to understand. The last four races have been nightmares and we need to figure out what's going wrong and where, clean up and understand things.

"I think out of the last races, only at Spa did we have actual speed. The rest has been more or less fighting with it."

These comments from the Finn have been echoed by team principal Frederic Vasseur, who is also determined to see Alfa return to form.

"For Kimi, a penalty for a false start meant coming back into the point from the back of the field was a tall order,” he explained.

"It has been a few tough races, so we need to regroup and find our groove again for the final races of the season."

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