• Lotus news

Raikkonen expects Lotus to suit Albert Park

Kimi Raikkonen had four days of pre-season testing in the new Lotus E20 © Sutton Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• Race:
• Australian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Kimi Räikkönen

• Teams:
• Lotus F1

Kimi Raikkonen is confident his Lotus E20 will suit the characteristics of Albert Park at next weekend's Australian Grand Prix.

The 2012 season-opener will be Raikkonen's first Formula One race since 2009 and his debut as a Lotus driver. The team missed out on a week of testing due to a problem with the car's suspension mounting, but from what he could tell, Raikkonen reckons the car will be quick in Melbourne.

"You need a car with good traction and everything from testing says that the E20 has good traction so that will help us," he said. "Strong turn-in and stable braking help too, and those areas also feel good with the car so we are well placed. The track can be a bit slippery at the beginning of the weekend and the Melbourne weather is not always very warm; the Melbourne weather can definitely be a bit tricky.

"This will be the first race so I don't know how we'll compare to the other teams. My engineers have been running simulations and looking at the test data so we have an idea of how the car should work at Albert Park, but we won't know for sure until we get out on track. It's very difficult to say before we've been out on track, but I think and hope we'll be reasonably strong."

It will also be Raikkonen's first race with the Drag Reduction System (DRS), but he is not expecting to find it any more difficult.

"It's still racing and more is the same as before than has changed," he said. "With the DRS and the KERS they are just buttons to press. In testing, sometimes you press it too late or too early but it's not going to change an awful lot. Pit stops are a bit shorter than before but nothing really different; you stop the car and then you go."

He admitted more testing would have helped, but said he was confident nonetheless.

"You always wish you had more days to prepare but it's the situation we have and you just have to deal with it," he added. "In the first week in Jerez we had pretty good running and no major reliability issues with the car - which is a good thing. We only had one problem at the second test in Barcelona - and we fixed that and it won't be an issue again. Now we just have to get everything at a level where we are happy and make sure I press the right buttons at the right times. Maybe a few more days would have done no harm but I'm very confident that we'll get it right when the time comes."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.