Singapore GP: Fernando Alonso describes Ferrari form as "sad"

He said that while there was no shortage of effort from Ferrari, it was clear its updates were not working.

"I think we need to be realistic and not be happy at all with the performance we did here," said Alonso.

"We did the maximum bringing new parts to this race, they work in a way, but maybe not enough. We tried many things, we made many changes last night and today and the car was a little easier to drive.

"I think everyone is pushing in the same direction, and the gap is very big. So that is sad.

"I think we have to be happy with the work that the factory has done. They worked non-stop. It's true we are not in the position we wanted in terms of performance but it's not because they didn't try the maximum.

"Our opponents are not watching television between the grands prix and are also improving.

"On a high-downforce circuit we were fourth fastest in Hungary. We come here and we are maybe fourth fastest in terms of the teams, and it's sad news for us obviously but there is nothing we can do now apart from preparing a perfect race tomorrow."

Alonso is sceptical about Ferrari's chances of regaining any ground in the coming races.

"We will see if we can improve in the next few races, but I doubt it because before July we were around 0.8 seconds slower than our competitors and here we are 1.1s," he said.

"It's not like in Korea and Japan we will be in pole position by magic."