Fernando Alonso: “We need to raise our game…”

Fernando Alonso gave the Spanish crowd something to cheer on Sunday when he chased down and passed team mate Kimi Raikkonen to finish sixth, but the result was far below the expectations of both the former champion and his fans.

Alonso, who ran a three-stop strategy, was 87 seconds behind winner Lewis Hamilton at the flag.

“Obviously we would like to be first and second, but we were not quick enough today,” he said afterwards. “In fact they nearly lapped us, so that’s not what we want. But at least we had some action and we put some show at the last moment for the fans.”

Alonso admits it won’t be easy to make progress.

“It’s going to be tough. We said on Thursday that the China podium was a little bit of a combination of things that helped us, and we were not in a position to fight for a podium. Today we confirmed unfortunately that feeling, and we need to raise our game. We are not quick enough at the moment. Everyone seems to bring some new parts to the races, and we’re struggling to catch up. We need to bring some next time.”

Regarding the need to focus on aerodynamics or the power unit, he said: “Both, we need to work all areas. I don’t think there is only one part that we need to improve and that’s it. We need to be more efficient, and we need to have better aero performance, we need to have better power. So many things to do.”