Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen believes if his team can coax fractionally more speed from their cars they will be Formula One title contenders this season.

Raikkonen, who made a dramatic return after a two-year absence from F1 last year, says the new car is set to be among the list of pacesetters at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.

“We had good speed last year, but not enough to win the championship,” Raikkonen said.

“That means we need more speed this year.

“If we can get just a little more from the car and keep our consistency, with some better results at the beginning of the year, then we should have a much better chance.”

The Finn, who won the world championship with Ferrari in 2007, warned his rivals that the new Lotus was a much improved car in every aspect.

“I think you always want more, but this car is a pretty good starting point and we’ll see – hopefully we’re fast enough,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s any area where it feels worse than last year’s car. So far everything is better.”

Lotus admitted to problems during pre-season testing, but Raikkonen said the issue is now under control.

“We had some problems in testing but we still completed quite a few laps,” he said.

“I’m not really concerned about reliability or anything like that as it was the same problem which caused us the biggest problems in testing and we’re on top of that now.”

He pointed to the team’s position during the northern winter last season, which forecast a bleak outlook for the outfit.

“You can never be 100 per cent certain of course, but if you look at last season we had problems before the start of the year then we were pretty good when we got to the races.”

Raikkonen also said the new car should be better suited to the Albert Park track.

“You need a car with good traction and the E21 feels better in this area than the E20 which wasn’t a bad car itself.

“Strong turn-in and stable braking help too, and those areas also feel good with the car so we are well placed,” he said.