Alonso hopeful of Renault breakthrough

The former world champion endured a difficult time at the British Grand Prix, struggling throughout the race to come home 14th.

And although the French car manufacturer's early season progress with its car appears to have stalled, Alonso is maintaining an optimistic outlook about the situation.

"We saw last year that we were more or less in the same position here last year and suddenly you can introduce something on the car, a new front wing or something in the diffuser, that will change things," said Alonso.

"If you gain three or four tenths in one hit, it can put you eight positions in front because the times are so tight this year that three or four tenths can be a huge difference in terms of positions at the end of qualifying.

"So, we are just hoping for that. We will keep introducing new parts in the races and in one of the races, maybe we do the magic part and suddenly we will become a podium finisher. This is the hope that we have, but we know it is going to be difficult."

Alonso reckons that the team's progress has ground to a halt in recent races, but he hopes the situation can be turned around swiftly.

"I think we started behind at the beginning of the season - especially with the double diffuser cars," he said. "We really did a very good job introducing our double diffuser in China, I think in race three.

"We did a lot of effort to improve the car as quick as we could, but from Bahrain the car has been more or less the same. This is the result of our positions in the last two or three grands prix.

"We are a little bit behind in our race. We know that. We need to keep pushing and in the next two or three grands prix hopefully there is something more coming, something bigger, that makes more difference.

"In the last three or four grands prix, we just introduced very few parts on the car that made no difference with performance, and this is the reason now we are struggling a little bit more. Our position in seventh in the constructors', and this 13th or 14th in real position in the drivers' championship, so we need a little bit more, especially on Saturday.

"On Sunday, with the race and with the fuels, etc, we go down and it is difficult to get points for us. So we need to change the situation and hopefully from Germany it will be better."

Alonso said his British GP hopes were effectively ended straight after the start, where he got stuck behind cars running longer than him.

"For us the race was over at the first corner," he explained. "I started 10th and I lost two places to cars that had more fuel, on a circuit where you can't overtake.

"And then we completed the rest of the race just for fun, more than anything else. It's impossible to overtake at this track; that's the thing about traditional circuits. I had an interesting fight with Sutil halfway through the race, and that was fun too.

"I was always fighting someone, but the truth is that I prefer to do it in front and
not in 13th or 14th. We could have done better, because 14th is not our position.

"We should be sixth, seventh or eighth, but you have to have a good start for that. We have been starting poorly for a few races and we need to work on the starts for the upcoming races."