Ferrari had all the tools to be successful this season but mistakes and mechanical issue thwarted the team's title ambitions, according to Kimi Raikkonen.
Kimi Raikkonen has plenty of supporters among the passionate Ferrari 'tifosi' as the team's first champion of the post-Schumacher era, and last to date, and his return would a break with Ferrari tradition as much as a blast from the past.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc held off Lewis Hamilton to win his first Formula One race on Sunday in the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix.
World champion Max Verstappen got back to winning ways on Sunday with a third straight pole-to-flag victory at the Japanese Formula One Grand Prix, leading teammate Sergio Perez across the line for a Red Bull 1-2 at Suzuka.
A decade on from their last driver's title, courtesy of Kimi Raikkonen in 2007, Ferrari emerged from eight days of testing in Spain with the fastest lap times coupled with impressive reliability.
'My goodness, the last bit was unbelievable! He's the best batsman in the world for a reason.'
Kimi Raikkonen went further, saying he had no intention of leaving McLaren.
George Russell led Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes front-row lockout in qualifying for the British Grand Prix on Saturday with McLaren's Lando Norris completing a rare one-two-three of home drivers.
Lewis Hamilton has raised his game but whether the Mercedes driver can deny Ferrari a second successive win of the season in China this weekend remains to be seen.
The Toyota driver has accused Ferrari of putting their own interests ahead of the future of Formula One.
A French court has thrown out a bid by Ferrari to prevent Formula One's governing body from introducing controversial new rules next season.
Ferrari, winners of 15 of last year's 18 races, have now gone three Grands Prix without a win
Ferrari have extended Brazilian Felipe Massa's contract by two more years to the end of the 2010 season.
In a race of safety cars and surprises, Verstappen's former team mate Pierre Gasly made a first podium appearance in second place for Red Bull-owned Toro Rosso, a rare Honda-powered one-two.
The 166 Spyder Corsa was built by manufacturer Enzo Ferrari just after the World War II.
The Dutchman's run of nine successive wins was snapped as he broke down on lap four with a brake problem.
Images from the Russian F1 Grand Prix in Sochi on Sunday
Max Verstappen won the first sprint race of the Formula One season at the Chinese Grand Prix on Saturday.
Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen and Brazilian Felipe Massa will stay at Ferrari for the next two seasons, the Italian team said in a statement on Friday. The announcement dealt a blow to the hopes of Spaniard Fernando Alonso and Poland's Robert Kubica, both of whom have been linked to the team in media speculation as likely replacements for Raikkonen in 2010.
The 23-year-old Finn has 48 points compared to the 44 of Ferrari's second-placed Michael Schumacher.
The former F1 world champion lauded the pit-crew for putting out the fire that engulfed Schumacher's car during Sunday's Austrian GP.
Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene has said the 'door at Maranello will always be open' for Michael Schumacher's son Mick should the German prospect follow in his father's footsteps and progress to Formula One.
Jose Froilan Gonzalez, the 'Pampas Bull' who in 1951 became the first driver to win a Formula One world championship Grand Prix for Ferrari, has died in Buenos Aires at the age of 90, Argentine media reported on Saturday.
Force India's Sergio Perez refused to rule out a move to Ferrari on Thursday, even though he denied any contact with the Italian Formula One team and said the rumours about his future reflected his form.
Francesco Molinari was only half joking when he said his stunning British Open victory might make the headlines back home - as long Ferrari had not won the Grand Prix in Hockenheim.
Kimi Raikkonen will race for Ferrari next season after agreeing a two-year deal that takes the 2007 Formula One World champion back to the glamour team he left in 2009.
Ferrari, expecting rain, sent Vettel and team mate Kimi Raikkonen out on the intermediate tyres at the start of the final shootout phase of qualifying.
The Finn's lap of one minute 17.221 seconds around Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya was the second fastest of the eight days of winter testing and slower only than team mate Sebastian Vettel's best on Thursday.
The matter is already fixed for hearing on September 23.
Sebastian Vettel has lived through a number of false dawns at Ferrari but bright sunshine bathed the team's garage after the German's Australian Grand Prix victory on Sunday.
The Briton's fourth victory in five races suggests that once again the 33-year-old is hitting a purple phase just as the season enters its critical stages.
Verstappen took pole position for the Saudi Arabian Formula One Grand Prix on Friday with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc qualifying alongside on the front row.
Brazilian Felipe Massa announced on Tuesday he is leaving Ferrari at the end of the season, opening the door for Kimi Raikkonen to return to the Formula One team that took him to the title in 2007.
The sport's oldest and most successful team are hoping the car, with more red and less white in the livery following the departure of sponsor Santander, will take them to a first championship in a decade.
Ferrari were already feeling the frustration and Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix added a measure of embarrassment to the mix for Formula One's most successful and glamorous team.
"I did not take any designs away from Ferrari. Someone passed on the designs but it wasn't me," Stepney told Italy's La Repubblica.
In the interests of better visibility, teams were told last month they could fix mirrors to the halo head protection device that encircles the cockpit and that became mandatory this season.
With 'team orders' now legal in Formula One, Ferrari's Felipe Massa will have to raise his game right from the start of the season in Australia next week.
Kimi Raikkonen believes he still has the speed that Ferrari need despite reports that the Formula One team are lining up a replacement for 2016 in fellow-Finn Valtteri Bottas.
Michael Schumacher won a point despite retiring as BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica was disqualified from the race.
