Kimi Raikkonen says Ferrari is lacking the raw performance to challenge Red Bull after he qualified fifth for the British Grand Prix.
Raikkonen and teammate Sebastian Vettel had to settle for the third row on Saturday, though the latter is set to drop to 11th on the grid after being hit with a gearbox change penalty. Ferrari had hoped to take the fight to Mercedes this weekend but Raikkonen admits the team is struggling in the cold and windy conditions at Silverstone.
"It's always difficult to know, before the weekend, what's going to happen," Raikkonen said after qualifying. "Obviously it's not ideal to be where we are, but it was kind of expected. It was a bit tricky in the end but that's how it turned out to be.
"We don't have enough speed, there's much we can do to be at the front in these conditions, in windy conditions, as they are very tricky conditions for us. This is where we are right now, in this circuit and in these conditions. Hopefully tomorrow is a bit easier and we go forward from there."
Raikkonen thinks Ferrari has reached a dead end with the set-up route it has followed over the weekend so far.
"I think in the end was not too bad. I think in qualifying my car has been the best it has been all weekend, but obviously it was still not easy, but we are a bit stuck with certain things. With the set-up we have we cannot change it.
"We can change a lot of things but it won't help because of certain issues that make us struggle with the handing. We could change things but it wouldn't make a different. It was not easy but this is it. Is it the circuit, the conditions? It's more the conditions the make us struggle a bit."
Raikkonen's contract was renewed to 2017 on Friday but he brushed off the importance of out-qualifying Vettel.
"It means nothing. You guys always have a lot of interest at looking at the numbers, but he had issues and if you make one mistake here there's a big time difference, so it means nothing. For me being ahead of Seb gives me nothing; if it was first and second then yes, it's Ok, but when we are fifth and sixth then it gives me zero happiness."