Kimi Raikkonen insists Ferrari has not stopped believing it can win races in 2016, even if the disappointing first half of the season has "hurt" the team.

Ferrari came into the season full of confidence it could challenge Mercedes across an entire season but has is to record a single victory. The team's second position in the championship has recently come under threat from Red Bull, leading some to suggest its title ambitions are now over.

But Raikkonen is convinced that winless run will come to an end soon.

"For sure the car is better than it was at the beginning of the year, but it's still not good enough," Raikkonen told the press in Hungary. "It's hard to know what the others have done exactly but for sure in some circuits we're closer to the front, in others we suffer a lot, that's how it goes.

"There are still to come a lot of circuits that will be good for us, as they swapped some races around. Are we going to be good enough on those places? Time will tell, but I still expect us to win races. We can always improve, we know what are weaknesses are, were working on them but things don't happen overnight and take time to fix.

"We need some patience but, for sure, in terms of package, what we have now is better than what we had at the start of the year but the others have also made good steps forward."

The Finn says the team's start to the season has been hard to deal with, though he sees no reason to dwell on the negatives.

"I'm sure we're all disappointed; we're all suffering when we're not winning but it doesn't help. No one has given up because we're not where we want to be, we're not here to walk away from the issues.

"It's very rare you are in a position where you go into every weekend knowing you'll finish first or second, that's a very fortunate place to be and we're not there. Even those teams that are in such a position will keep fighting and improving their cars.

"I don't see a reason to be sad, but it does hurt when you finish second or third, but that doesn't mean we'll give up and not try. I don't see a point to be sad or not positive but we are not where we should be."