British Grand Prix: Alonso believes McLaren should have gambled

Despite the changeable weather at Silverstone, teams followed relatively uniform strategies - everyone swapping from wets to intermediates between laps five and seven, then onto slicks during laps 15-18.

Alonso was running 10th until a spin at Abbey just before half-distance dropped him to the 13th position where he finished.

He felt McLaren could have vaulted him up the order had it rolled the dice as the track dried.

"I think we could invent something," said Alonso.

"We are not fighting for the world championship, we could have stopped earlier, later, to try to gain some positions, but we were a little bit slow with reaction on that."

He acknowledged that strategy gambles meant "you can go from hero to zero so quickly" but felt it would still have been worth the risk with little to lose.

"Maybe you stop one lap earlier and you don't finish that lap because you crash into a wall," Alonso said.

"You have to do what you can, but obviously we lost some positions in the stops so we need to look at this."

His team-mate Jenson Button came from 17th on the grid to 12th, feeling he had little scope to do better after the wing problem that spoiled his qualifying.

"In our position you need to qualify in the top 10 then try to hang on," he said.

"We haven't got pace to make places up to get into the top 10."

He joked that McLaren had urged him to stay close to Sebastian Vettel when the Ferrari driver - who came home ninth - was penalised for a clash with Felipe Massa.

"The guys said 'maximum attack, stay within five seconds of Vettel'," Button said.

"I think they forgot he was driving a Ferrari. I tried but no chance."