The Scuderia dominated the previous edition of the F1 night race, with Sebastian Vettel winning from pole position and Raikkonen coming home in third.

With Ferrari yet to taste victory since then, the Finn was asked whether this weekend’s race provided the team with the best chance to end its current drought.

“It’s the same story as any other race,” Raikkonen replied. “We have to see how it goes [in free practice]. Yes, it’s true we were good here last year but that doesn’t give us any guarantee that it’s going to be the same story this year.

“We hope it is but time will tell. We’ll start it as any other race weekend – we do our program and on Friday we get some ideas of where we are.”

Despite a challenging 2016 campaign for the Maranello-based outfit so far, Raikkonen, who will continue to partner Vettel at Ferrari next year, insists the team has not stood still performance wise.

“Obviously we want to win, we want to fight for wins, be up there and give ourselves, every weekend, very good chances of victory. That hasn’t happened this year, unfortunately.

“We are better than last year but obviously the others have improved more. I’m sure we are doing the right things, we have great people and a good atmosphere, but the speed is missing a bit.”

Team principal Maurizio Arrivabene recently said he was confident Ferrari could win on merit this year.