Alonso says German GP will show if Silverstone slump was a one-off

Despite coming through to third place in the Silverstone race, Alonso remained concern by the pace deficit that left him only 10th in qualifying.

"We were happy with the points we recovered but I was not happy with the performance," he said.

"It is something we need to answer here - if Silverstone was just a one-off and we didn't have the right balance or the right set-up for that particular circuit, or is it just really that everyone else did a big step forward and we did a step backwards?

"We need to answer this question and recover some of the form."

Alonso said Ferrari's initial findings suggested there were specific problems from Silverstone that could be addressed.

"We went into a very deep analysis of Silverstone, knowing that we were not competitive, and we saw some issues with the car in terms of aero characteristics at Silverstone, in terms of set-up to do some things a bit better at a certain speed in corners," he said.

But the two-time world champion believes there is more to gain from quickly mastering Pirelli's revised 2013 tyres than from Ferrari improving its car.

"Here and Hungary, we will be dominated by the tyres - how they perform on each car," Alonso said.

"So we think we should not be worried because the tyres should be good for us, or not worse than any other car.

"With the set-up you win one tenth or two tenths with characteristics of aero, with tyres you can lose seconds.

"So we need to adapt to the new tyres quicker than the other teams, and we will put a lot of effort on that."