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Raikkonen expecting tough midfield battle for Alfa Romeo

Raikkonen expecting tough midfield battle for Alfa Romeo

07-03-2019 15:10
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Bobby Vincent

New Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Raikkonen has insisted that nothing is guaranteed in the 'midfield' battle for the upcoming season.

In pre-season testing in Spain, the likes of Renault, Toro Rosso, McLaren, Haas and Alfa drivers all posted their best times within a few tenths of a second off each other on the softest tyre.

However, Racing Point were a little further off, and the less said about Williams, the better.

"I think they've (Alfa Romeo) been doing a good job the last year already, and just growing up," the former Ferrari driver said. "But nothing is guaranteed; if we are fifth, or 10th, who knows?

"I think it's going to be quite close between the mid-pack and if you do your job well you'll be higher up than on off-days when you don't do it well so we'll just do the best job we can and go for the first race.

"We'll give our best and see what we get in our first race and work from there."

Raikkonen was very upbeat about the new Alfa Romeo C38 from what he experienced in the pre-season tests: "We're not 100 per cent where want to be but I think if you ask anybody, they're going to say the same.

"I think there is nothing negative. Obviously, we want to improve as anybody, there's always things to improve on the car, we don't know where we are and we'll find out very soon."