Kimi Raikkonen says he is convinced Ferrari has a more competitive package this season compared with last year's car, despite it failing to mount a race winning challenge against Mercedes in 2016.

Having enjoyed a major step forward in 2015 with three race wins courtesy of new signing Sebastian Vettel, many touted the Scuderia to emerge as a formidable title contender in 2016, but it is yet to reach the top step of the podium after six events.

Despite this, Raikkonen feels Ferrari is better placed than at the same stage a year ago looking at the 'bigger picture', even if he concedes the team isn't happy with its current position regardless.

"I think from my side has been better," he said. "People are saying we're not doing as well as last year but if you look just at wins, then we're not, but that doesn't really tell you the big picture.

"I'm sure we have a better package than last year, but other teams have improved and we're not where we want to be. But that's part of Formula One, we always want to improve, we want to be in a position to challenge for first place in every race. When you say it's worse than last year, that's only if you look at certain results, but I'm sure we have a lot a better package."

With Ferrari's second place in the constructors' standings coming under pressure from a revitalized Red Bull, Raikkonen believes Ferrari has the potential to come on stronger later in the season at more favourable venues.

"Certain races that we're pretty certain that will suit us better have been moved from the beginning to later on in the season and all the races that we knew that were difficult for us have been moved to the front. Just looking at the results doesn't always tell you the full story.

"Obviously we're not happy with where we are, we want to improve and we'll try to work on the areas we know we have to improve. But it's not easy to improve, otherwise everyone would be up there.

"We keep working and even after a difficult weekend we know we can certainly do a lot better in the next race. Until we're 1-2 in every weekend we cannot be happy, but that's our goal and hopefully we'll get there some time soon."