Raikkonen confident of strong result in Australia

Kimi Raikkonen is confident of a strong result at the Formula One season-opener in Australia despite a seemingly difficult pre-season test in Barcelona.

Raikkonen says that it doesn't matter whether the Australian Grand Prix is the first or the last race of the season, they all rank the same when the points are totaled at the end of the season.

“It doesn’t really matter if it is the start or the end of the season, every race is worth the same amount of points and is an occasion to do our best," said Raikkonen. "It is always hard to predict our performance for the first race of the season. Even though we gave our best during the six days of winter testing in Barcelona, we will first know where we really stand after Australia."

Alfa Romeo set the slowest time of any team across pre-season testing when completing qualifying simulations. However, being the strongest in a straight line would suggest that the team were running with low fuel and in a high engine mode which left Raikkonen saying that the team had work to do before Australia.

Now, the veteran driver appears to be more confident of what could be possible in Melbourne.

Raikkonen added, "All the team worked hard to improve even more the car in comparison to last year. We all did our homework and I am confident that we can achieve good results in Melbourne."

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