F1 USGP: Fernando Alonso says Ferrari considered pitlane start

Any driver going onto a sixth power unit in the 2014 Formula 1 season has to take a penalty, with Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull opting to do so at Austin after it became inevitable that he would exceed the permitted number of Renault engines at some point in the final races.

Alonso says Ferrari is in a similar position, but it should be able to get through the remaining races by using up mileage on older components.

"We were a couple of tenths down on the engine because we have some limitations there after the Monza engine failure," he said after qualifying sixth.

"In fact we were discussing last week using the sixth engine and starting from the pitlane like Red Bull will, or using a very old engine with a little bit less power but at least we wouldn't need to recover places.

"We chose the second option, so probably we are missing a little bit of performance here and there."

Asked by AUTOSPORT if he thought he could get through the last three grands prix of 2014 within the five-engine limit, Alonso said Ferrari was on target and prioritising the Abu Dhabi finale.

"We are doing all these things to not take the sixth," he said.

"If we can manage here and Brazil, then we must not have a penalty in Abu Dhabi because it is double points.

"We have a better engine available. We need to put the better one in Abu Dhabi, so we'll manage these races.

"I think we'll be OK. We have probably lost out today because of the power, but I'm still in my normal position of sixth.

"I'd prefer to start sixth, a couple of tenths down because of power, rather than at the back."