Raikkonen insists Alfa has been better than "s***" points total suggests

Alfa Romeo Racing star Kimi Raikkonen has suggested his team's performance has been better than their points tally suggests, as the Finn has accumulated 31 of the side's 32 points so far in 2019.

Coming over from Ferrari, Raikkonen brought an immense amount of experience to Alfa, as well as his never-fading talent. The 39-year-old was always scrapping for points, while teammate Antonio Giovinazzi was still getting his feet wet in F1. The Italian officially wasn't a rookie, but he'd only had two Grands Prix worth of experience heading into the season.

Unsurprisingly, Raikkonen has led the charge for Alfa, with the 2007 champion sitting in eighth place in the drivers' championship with an impressive 31 points. Only McLaren's Carlos Sainz is ahead of the Finn in midfield.

"I didn't expect anything," Raikkonen was quoted by F1i.com when talking about the 2019 season.

"I came in to do the best that I can, and I think if you look at the points right now, it looks pretty s***. But I don't think it's really telling the true story of the first part of the season.

"For sure around Barcelona, we were not where we wanted to be, we were too slow basically. But before and after that we came back pretty well. We are going in the right direction and doing the right things, but as a team, we have limitations."

"We are not like the guys at the front, and we know that, we accept it. But for what we have, we are doing good.

"We just want to be faster and to be ahead. Slowly we are building there. It takes time as always. But we're doing pretty okay. It could always be better, we haven't always maximised the points, but that's how it goes."

Raikkonen will certainly be hoping for Giovinazzi to pull more off the weight in the second half of the season, with the Italian bagging just one point so far.