Raikkonen's Ferrari to Challenge Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes at Monaco GP

Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen hopes to break the Mercedes dominance under leader Lewis Hamilton in the current Formula 1 world championship, claiming his F14 racing car was improving ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix.

The British driver took the lead from his team-mate Nico Rosberg in the Spanish Grand Prix, after securing his fourth win in a row.

And even though Fernando Alonso claimed both Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Rosberg could complete a clean sweep of all 19 races this season Raikkonen is still confident of turning around Ferrari's current dismal performances.

"The F14 T is improving and I am sure that, step-by-step, the results will come, but we must push harder to get them," Raikkonen told Ferrari official website.

"After the last race, we stayed on in Barcelona for the test, which was reasonably positive: we had problems at the start, but by the end, I can say I was pleased with the work we managed to get through."

The last race in Spain amounted to a full calendar year since Ferrari's last race victory – when Alonso won the Spanish Gran Prix.

However, Ferrari's Deputy Chief Designer Simone Resta also expressed his confidence on closing the gap over Hamilton and Rosberg in the next races.

"For the races that follow Monaco, Canada, Austria, UK and so on, in Maranello we are currently working very hard to introduce a lot of updates to move forward on the F14 T's performance level to close the gap to the quickest cars," Resta said.