Alonso: Ferrari fired up by tough races

Despite producing improved pace in the last three grands prix, Ferrari only has Alonso's third place in Canada to show for its gains, having been compromised by the safety car timing in Valencia and a penalty for Alonso in Britain.

That lack of points has seen Alonso slip to fifth in the standings, 47 points behind leader Lewis Hamilton at the season's halfway point. But he said far from being downcast, Ferrari had been fired up by its misfortunes and would come back even stronger as a result.

"I've been in Maranello four days last week working with the team," Alonso said in a video interview for Ferrari's website.

"Overall I felt a very good atmosphere in the team. All the guys in Maranello are very, very focused on fighting for this championship.

"After these two bad races people are even more motivated than before because they feel we deserve a good race finally."

The Spaniard declared after Silverstone that he was still confident he could win the title, and he thinks that three good races could change everything.

"We saw this year if you have two or three bad races or two or three good races, it can change the picture of the championship completely," Alonso said.

"We arrive [in Germany] after two bad races with not many points. I think before long we will arrive at a good moment. We need to take the maximum from our car, do two or three podiums in a row, and I'm sure with the new points system we can be in the fight for the championship very soon."

Alonso was buoyed by the fact that Ferrari's upgrades worked well on both the Valencia street track and Silverstone's fast sweeps - suggesting its improved car can be a factor everywhere.

"I think the performance of the car at Silverstone was very, very good - a good surprise for us," he said. "The performance of the car in Valencia was very good, so two different circuits and the performance of the car was good enough to be fighting for a good position on the podium.

"So I think for the remaining races we are very optimistic. We are bringing some new developments on the car in the coming races as well, so we will not stop. We will fight until it isn't possible."