Amid a rough run of results, a “calm” Kimi Raikkonen is keeping Alfa Romeo on track, says team boss Fred Vasseur.
The Swiss-based team has scored just nine points in the past seven races, dropping down the Constructors’ standings to eighth having been as high as fourth in the early stages of 2019.
In fact, since the summer break, only Antonio Giovinazzi has scored top 10 results in Monza and Singapore, while Raikkonen has finished no higher than 13th.
“It has been a really up and down season,” Vasseur commented at Suzuka.
“We had the first four or five races where we scored a lot of points and then we had a bad momentum around Monaco and Barcelona and then we went backwards.
“The last four races were very difficult. It’s up and down, but let’s see in the last five if it’s up and hopefully, the last five will be OK.”
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When asked if Raikkonen’s experience was helping Alfa in this tricky period, he replied: “He’s staying calm. He’s not a bit nervous.
“I think it’s good also for us to stay focused on the real issue and not to start to try to go in every single direction.
“We know what did wrong on the last two or three events and I hope that we will be able to correct it for the next ones, and that’s it.”
As for Kimi himself, he downplayed the extent of Alfa’s problems noting the highly competitive midfield pack.
“I don’t think we need a lot faster to be in the fight, to be consistently up there,” he said.
“Obviously we had a new package a few races ago, so we’re trying to understand if that’s the reason or if there’s something else, like the track layouts or a combination of everything.
“Hopefully we can understand a bit more and move forward. As I said, it’s not massive things we need, just some small things and you can move up in the midfield.”