Kimi Raikkonen says he must start winning more races in 2013 if he’s to beat Sebastian Vettel and mount a challenge for the title.
The Finnish driver has so far won just one race – the season opener in Australia – but has finished second five times. Despite this, scoring in every race and beating Vettel in Hungary, he remains 38 points adrift of the Red Bull driver.
This consistency, according to Raikkonen, isn’t enought to win the title unless something unusual happens.
“I am now back in second which was a good way to enter the summer break,” said Raikkonen. “I finished ahead of Seb in Hungary so obviously scored more points than him there.
“To beat him [though], we need to be winning races and if we keep finishing second like we’ve done many times this year it’s probably not going to be enough for the championship, but you never know what might happen.”
The 33-year-old conceeds that his Lotus’s race pace is capable of winning races, but it’s one-lap pace is harming his chances of starting ahead of his rivals.
“Obviously I keep making my life difficult on Saturdays in qualifying so then we pay a price, but we still have a good car in the race. Now we have tyres that are a little bit different we have to understand exactly how to use them. We made progress in Budapest so it should be easier in Spa, but that will be the same for everyone. To win, it’s always better to be starting near the front.”
