Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo team was hampered by a poorly performing Ferrari engine last year as the Italian manufacturer lagged behind rival engine suppliers Mercedes, Honda and Renault.
Ferrari’s struggles followed a private settlement with the FIA over the 2019 engine, leaving both the plant and customer teams collapsing at the end of the speed traps.
It limited Alfa Romeo to eighth place in the constructors’ championship and only beat the other Ferrari customers Haas and Williams.
Ferrari decided to have its engine overhauled in 2021 to recover. The first long runouts for the new engine came this week during pre-season testing in Bahrain.
When asked about the progress of the Ferrari engine, Raikkonen said he could feel that a step forward had been taken in winter to get Alfa Romeo in better shape for the new season.
“I’m sure they have made progress and it is better,” said Raikkonen.
“But then you would expect the other manufacturers to have improved too.
“But yeah, compared to what we had last year, it’s in a better position.
“We’ll have to wait to see where the racing stars once were, but it’s definitely helpful to us.”
Follow LIVE:
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF21
Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc repeated Raikkonen’s comments about the new engine, but refused to read too much about it at the beginning of the tests.
“Everything feels pretty good, but again it is very difficult to comment now,” said Leclerc.
“Nobody pushes everything to its limits, especially under these conditions. So at the moment it’s still early, but everything feels good and it is in line with what we expected. “
Raikkonen tried out the first Alfa Romeo C41 car on the opening day of the tests in Bahrain before being forced to sit out on Saturday when teammate Antonio Giovinazzi completed both sessions.
Raikkonen will return to the cockpit on Sunday to complete the entire final day of testing and build on a solid first impression he got of the car.
“It is obviously still early, everything worked well,” said Raikkonen.
“We had no problems all day yesterday. All is well. The car obviously felt a little different than last year, but it feels pretty good in a few places.
“The wind made it very difficult at other parts of the track, but I think it’s a good place to start.”
