Things have not gone to plan for Raikkonen at Ferrari

Going into this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, Raikkonen is 15 points behind drivers' championship co-leaders Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.

"Kimi is a friend, and I've seen him struggle with problems," said Dennis, Raikkonen's boss for five years.

"I see him as a friend, not a competitor, and seeing a friend in pain gives me no pleasure at all."

Things looked bright for Raikkonen when he won the Australian Grand Prix in March on his Ferrari debut.

But McLaren's dream team of reigning world champion Alonso and rookie sensation Hamilton relegated him to third place in Malaysia, a position he repeated in Bahrain, this time beaten by Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa and the Englishman.

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Raikkonen was forced to retire from the Spanish Grand Prix, where Massa again won, and a crash during qualifying at Monaco gave him an uphill battle as the McLaren duo romped home in the principality.

Massa is 10 points ahead of him in the drivers standings, raising questions about whether Ferrari will soon have to give preference to the Brazilian's title assault.