Kimi Raikkonen will not immediately set the F1 tracks alight in 2012, according to grand prix veteran Jarno Trulli.
2007 world champion Raikkonen, a winner of 18 races with top teams McLaren and Ferrari last decade, is returning with Lotus this season after a two-year sojourn in world rallying.
But Italian Trulli, whose season with Caterham in 2012 will be his sixteenth consecutively in F1, doubts the 32-year-old will be immediately fast.
"Yes, it will be difficult for Kimi when he has to re-adapt to a F1 car," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
"I don’t think at the very beginning Kimi is going to be fast," added Trulli.