Criticised by Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne following an unconvincing start to the season, Kimi Raikkonen admits that it is taking him "too long" to get to grips with the SF70H.

While Ferrari's 2016 contender was very much to the Finn's liking, allowing him to not only match the pace of his teammate, but even beat it, in the latter stages of the season, the SF70H is an altogether different beast.

While Sebastian Vettel has won twice and finished second once in the opening three races, his Finnish teammate has two fourths and a fifth.

To further complicate the issue, while starting from the second row twice, lacklustre starts have also compromised the Finn's Sunday afternoons.

In the wake of the Chinese Grand Prix, which twice saw Raikkonen fail to get to grips with the clearly slower Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, Marchionne, who attended the event, admitted his displeasure, revealing that team boss Maurizio Arrivabene would be 'having words'.

Again, in Bahrain, Raikkonen was not entirely convincing, leaving the Finn to admit that it is taking his too long to understand the new car.

"To be honest, it takes way too long," he said, according to Motorsport.com. "You know, we're supposed to get it right straight away, and obviously we haven't.

"There are a lot of reasons but it didn't help last race not driving the first day," he continued, referring to the cancelled Friday sessions in Shanghai. "At least when you're going through some issues, you want to get track time."

Admitting he struggled in the opening two races, the Finn believes the Bahrain weekend finally saw him getting to grips with the car.

"I'm pretty happy with the car now," he said. "I feel that we are doing the absolutely right things. And in the race I felt the car was very good, but I made a mess in the first lap, putting ourselves in a difficult position.

"It's just the small things now," he insists, "in the big picture we are pretty much where we want to be, it's just that we need to fine-tune a few things.

"I don't think it's the big things but obviously it has cost us," he admits. "It's taking too long, but there's nobody to complain to, it's my job.

"Overall, we are much happier with the things, but I cannot be very happy with the result even this weekend. It's all big picture, when you look, it's been disappointing."