Mika Häkkinen has backed Kimi Räikkönen to recover from his troubled first half of the 2014 season.
Since returning to Ferrari, Räikkönen has been overshadowed by team-mate Fernando Alonso; while Alonso holds fourth after the first 11 races with two podiums to his name, Räikkönen sits 12th with a best finish of sixth.
But Häkkinen says he has seen enough progress from Räikkönen, who has struggled to find a comfortable balance with the F14 T chassis, to suggest that his fellow Finn will soon get on terms with Alonso.
"It's just a matter of time. Kimi is just as quick as Alonso when he manages to get his car set up properly," said Häkkinen, a two-time World Champion, during his post-Hungarian Grand Prix column for Hermes.
Räikkönen's aforementioned sixth place came directly before the summer break in Budapest, but he could have achieved more had it not been for a backfiring tyre gamble that saw him eliminated from the opening phase.
Häkkinen admitted to shock over the outcome, questioning Ferrari's decision-making on the pit wall.
"That was an obvious mistake, one that shouldn't be made by a team at the level of Ferrari," he explained.
"Maybe their thoughts were already on the four week break. I struggle to believe that such a serious error was made under [Engineering Director] Pat Fry. I know Fry very well; he was an engineer at McLaren when I was there. The alarm bells should have gone off for a person like him. One should never take anything for granted."
quoteKimi Raikkonen insists he hasn't got slower amid 2014 F1 struggles By Ben Anderson Sunday, August 3rd 2014, 21:57 GMT
Kimi Raikkonen still believes he is fast enough to fight at the front in Formula 1, despite struggling to find his form with Ferrari this season.
Raikkonen returned to the Scuderia this year after two successful seasons with Lotus, but has so far failed to beat his new team-mate Fernando Alonso in 11 grands prix.
Spaniard Alonso has scored 88 points more than Raikkonen and outqualified the Finn nine times, but the 2007 world champion says the difficult run has not shaken his faith in his own ability.
"It's been a difficult year but that's life," Raikkonen said.
"It's not fun when you have hard times but it's happened before and that's how it goes.
"We try to make things better all the time, make fewer mistakes, and get the car where I want it to be to be fast again.
"I know I haven't suddenly lost over the winter a few seconds of laptime."
Raikkonen remains adamant it is only minor issues preventing him from producing better results.
"It's a case of putting things in the right order for me," he said.
"Unfortunately we haven't managed to do it here and there.
"Sometimes we have one day, one practice, in some places where we are absolutely fine, but we're still fighting against things a lot and obviously then the results show where we end up."
The Finn's sixth place in the last race in Hungary was his best result of the season so far. Fifth on the Bahrain GP grid is his highest qualifying slot to date.
"If it would be easy, as sometimes it goes, we would be laughing, but it's not the case this year," Raikkonen added.
"I have trust in the team but obviously there have to be changes and improvements, But it can only happen when we work as a team."
Never ask a woman whether she is pregnant! You only can do wrong!
Then again I also had that thought! But I guess that they both just ate too much lately!
"Walk on, through the wind, Walk on, through the rain, Though your dreams be tossed and blown. Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart, And you'll never walk alone, YOU`LL NEVER WALK ALONE!!!"
Well..to me it looks like she is about 2-3 months pregnant. To me it was difficult to be on boat about 6months pregnant and it was a big boat. At 2-3 nothing. Then again , I didt feel sick anyway , not during all three ones I had. But according to finnish rumours, Minttu MIGHT be pregnant...
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Wed Jul 30, 2014 4:58 pm
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all over Kimi 
Seems Kimis is having some fun 
