Raikkonen believes he can continue leading the fight to Ferrari’s five-time champion Michael Schumacher as long as his new car proves fast enough when it is finally unleashed on the grid.

Brazil’s Emerson Fittipaldi became the youngest world champion in 1972 at the age of 25 but Raikkonen will not reach his 24th birthday until October.

“It’s a great feeling to be leading the championship,” said Raikkonen, who grabbed his inaugural triumph after just 36 races to head into Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix with a six-point advantage.

“It’s important at the beginning of the season to score as many points as possible and hopefully once we get our new car we can fight for the championship even harder.

“It looks good now but there’s still a long way to go and we need to keep scoring good finishes in the races.

“Before the start of the season it was quite difficult to know what was going to happen. We knew the car was quicker than last year and much more reliable, but you don’t know when you are testing against other teams what they are doing.

“It has been a good start for us. We have many points and I am happy with how things are. I just need to keep it up.

“The old car seems to be really quick still but I think once we’re in Europe things can change quite a bit.

“I think we will still have a good package in Brazil this weekend. But it’s a different story when we get to Europe, the weather is not so warm and all those other things. But I think we can do as well in the first two (European) races.”

Raikkonen – eight months younger than Schumacher was when he scored his first victory – admits the triumph in Kuala Lumpur was a massive boost to his confidence having twice come close to a win.

“The first race win is always important,” added Raikkonen. “I think it is going to help me to know how it feels but it is difficult to say how it is going to affect me or if I am going to get better of not.

“At least now I know I am capable of winning a race and I don’t need to worry about those things any more. I am not really worried but you are always thinking ‘are you going to win the race or not?’.

“If it hasn’t happened, there is always the thought that maybe you are not capable of doing it. I don’t have to think about those things anymore.”

McLaren’s reserve driver Alexander Wurz is expected to give the 2003 car a shakedown next week though the car will almost certainly not make an appearance the following week at the San Marino Grand Prix when Ferrari will unveil their F2003-GA.

“Nobody knows when we are going to start racing it,” added Raikkonen.

“As soon as we get it quicker and more reliable than the old car then we will take it to races. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later.”