Fernando Alonso has warned against writing Ferrari off so early in the season and insists the British Grand Prix will be the true litmus test for his championship campaign.
Alonso is currently 74 points behind runaway championship leader Sebastian Vettel and despite the tight and twisty Monaco Grand Prix circuit playing to the Ferrari's strengths last weekend, he still finished behind the Red Bull. Just one week earlier Ferrari's aerodynamic weaknesses were laid bare on the high-speed Circuit de Catalunya in Spain, which is a more representative proving ground for a car's overall pace.
The next major test of the cars' aerodynmic package will come at Silverstone in early July and Alonso is hoping a major upgrade package will put him back in the fight.
"Clearly the gap in the championship is widening all the time: we can do the maths, but neither myself nor the team are used to throwing in the towel," Alonso told the official Ferrari website. "Already today [Monday], I've been talking to the engineers about the new parts we will have in Montreal, but above all, of the steps forward we must take for Silverstone, when we will back at a track which requires a lot of aerodynamic downforce. That's where we will really see how our season is going to pan out. Up until then, we want to and we must believe in ourselves."
After the Monaco Grand Prix Alonso drew comparisons between Vettel's start to the season and Jenson Button's championship winning year in 2009, but despite the obvious similarities he is not giving up on the title fight.
"Immediately after the race, I said the fight for the title was getting ever more difficult, not to say impossible," Alonso added. "Sure, if Vettel ends up winning a race in which we felt there was a chance of victory, then you get a feeling of disappointment, but that does not mean will not continue working hard at the track and back home on developing the car."
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