Raikkonen: our recovery will start in Shanghai

Ferrari ace Kimi Raikkonen has said that the team will start its recovery at the very next race in Shanghai. The 2007 world champion has endured a torrid start to the season, with no points from either race so far, and none for his team-mate Felipe Massa either. But the Finn promised Ferrari fans that a recovery was imminent.

“We still don t have any points following two Grand Prix and without a doubt this is a difficult time for us,” he said.

“But we ve been through similar phases in the past. We know how to react and we ll do so in Shanghai.”

A mistake accounted for Kimi Raikkonen’s Australia race, in which he was threatening second place, and in Malaysia water came into the KERS system and his Ferrari could not continue.

The Ferrari squad have suffered some indignity at the start of the season. In Malaysia the team’s decision to put Kimi on full wet tyres was greeted with much derision in the paddock. Reliability questions have dogged the team both in pre-season testing and the first two races, which spells a bigger and longer-term problem than strategic decisions, which can go one way or another.

As such it has been difficult to tell whether the Finn has recovered his real form, which was shown only periodically last season.