Kimi Raikkonen shrugs off 2015 criticism

Kimi Raikkonen does not care what other people think of his performance this year and is sure he has the ability to return to winning ways in 2016.

Since rejoining Ferrari in 2014, Raikkonen has struggled for results and has been comprehensively beaten by his two team-mates Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. When asked what had changed since he was winning races two years ago at Lotus, Raikkonen said it was mainly other people's perceptions rather than his actual driving ability.

"It's not like suddenly I am becoming a worse driver, but you know how people think here [in F1]," he told ESPN. "The first time I do well again they will be praising me and then the next bad race it will be the same. That's F1."

Raikkonen admits he has underperformed this year, but does not put it down to a lack of pace.

"It has improved [since 2014], speed wise it is a lot better. It's not nice, but I have to say it: it has not been a very good year. It's still been a lot better than last year, but it's no fun sometimes when you are having a difficult time.

"I still expect to be strong in the future and that's what we work for. I'm sure that the changes that will be done to the car will also help. Is it enough? We will see next year. In many ways I'm much happier than last year, but still the results were not what I expect from myself.

Raikkonen said a series of small problems with the car and mistakes in the cockpit disrupted his season and meant he did not get the results his pure speed deserved.

"Obviously I made some mistakes, we had some problems and we have retired five times. If you put a lot of small things together or you have a small thing in practice it can take a lot of time out of being on circuit and not a lot of running gets done. They always disturb you and it breaks the flow of the weekend and we keep having those and the end result is not so good. We have a lot more speed than what the results show but obviously the results give you the points."