Should there be a dry race at this weekend's British Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso is confident Ferrari will not struggle on the hard tyre as much as it did at the Spanish Grand Prix.
After two wet Friday practice sessions the teams are none the wiser about how the slick tyres will hold up during one of their toughest workouts of the season. Last time the hard tyres were used in Barcelona, Ferrari was lapped by its rivals and it has brought a major upgrade to the rear of its car to try to solve its tyre warm-up issues.
And although Alonso did not try out the slick tyres on Friday, he is confident he can be competitive if the dry weather forecasted for later this weekend turns up.
"Obviously in dry conditions so far we have had problems with the hard tyres and the medium tyres as well compared to the softs," he said. "This is mainly due to the lack of downforce we have in our car, so it's our problem and not the problem of Pirelli. The less downforce you have the worse it is for the hard tyres because you are not working in the right temperature and with the right grip.
"We have some new aerodynamic parts here which will hopefully improve the downforce of the car so we will be quick. We are pretty sure that the hard tyre can work a little bit better for us and offer better grip. It's something that we need to confirm on Sunday."
The other major change for this weekend is the restriction on off-throttle blown diffusers, but again Alonso said the wet conditions clouded the affect it had on performance.
"You learn nothing," he said. "You can only use the maps that you are allowed at this race, they are the only ones you can run anymore - so there's not a comparison or anything you can do.
"We know that we lose some downforce under braking, but it's the same for everybody and it was not a big problem today because we are not braking at the limit and we are not in dry conditions. It's still very difficult to see any difference in the car compared to Valencia."
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