Kimi Raikkonen says there is no clear-cut reason why Ferrari has been unable to replicate its Suzuka pace in Austin after settling for the third row of the grid for the U.S. Grand Prix.
Ferrari out-qualified both Red Bull's in Japan but slipped back to the third row of the grid on Saturday. Raikkonen, who out-qualified teammate Sebastian Vettel, was 0.6s slower than the fastest Red Bull and he admits Ferrari is struggling in a number of places.
When asked how important it would be to beat either Red Bull, but especially Max Verstappen (who starts on softs), off the line, Raikkonen replied: "The start is the easiest place to make positions up, but I never said I expected to be as quick as in Suzuka. Hoping is a different thing, but this is where we are.
"Unfortunately we are not like in Suzuka, but we've seen that before, it changes from circuit to circuit, but the car is behaving pretty OK. There were no big issues but we just need more downforce, more power to go faster around the lap. It's not a particular thing, it's many things, but the balance of the car was OK, we weren't just fast around the lap."
Raikkonen says there is nothing left for Ferrari to do but re-group and focus on the grand prix.
"We just have to go faster around the lap, the tyres are behaving as we were expecting, the conditions are what they are, windy in a few places, but overall today it's been good, compared to yesterday, it's just the end result is not very good, not what we wanted, but it's the reality today. We try to work and do our best tomorrow."