Kimi Raikkonen believes Alfa Romeo is at a "good starting point" but isn't getting too excited just yet.
The Finn had a solid week at his new team with the fourth fastest time and 252 laps to his name, proving even at 39, he can still run marathons.
Showing his typically unfussed attitude, however, the 2007 world champion wouldn't be drawn on whether he thinks the former Sauber outfit can challenge strongly in the midfield.
“I don’t have any expectation,” Raikkonen was quoted by Crash.net. “We can only do our best, but I think the team has built a good car and I think that’s a good starting point.
“Maybe we’ll get some idea from next week but, for sure, in two or three weeks, whenever the first race is, we’ll find out.
"We still have a lot of things to work on, for sure more work to be done than maybe in a bigger team, but I think so far it has been good.”
Also Read:
Kimi has made a seamless transition back to Alfa Romeo following his departure from Ferrari at the end of last year.
And having had four days now to settle into the C38, the focus will now be optimisation ahead of the season-opener in Australia.
“In the cockpit, once you sit in, it all looks pretty similar, so it has been quite smooth, I have to admit,” he said of the adjustment process.
“Obviously there’s work to be done, that’s the same for everyone, but once we put everything how we like I think it should be pretty OK.
“I think we’ve been quite pleased with how the car is feeling, so far, we’ve done a lot of running, which is always a good thing but it’s very early days and we’re still learning.”
