Alonso worried about traction problems

Alonso was embroiled in several battles with rivals during the Hockenheim race, but the Spaniard ended up losing most of them as he dropped down the order following his strong qualifying.

The two-time champion was especially slow at the German track's hairpin.

And Alonso reckons his team's problems are unlikely to be solved this season.

"The problem we have with the traction is worrying," Alonso, 11th in Germany, was quoted as saying by AS newspaper.

"When we are fighting wheel to wheel and we try to pass someone we just lose too much out of the slow corners and then we can't make up the ground on the straight"

When asked if there was a solution to the problem, Alonso said: "Yes, wait a year."

The Renault driver saw teammate Nelsinho Piquet benefit from a safety car period to climb onto the podium for the first time.

Alonso, who lost a place during the safety car outing, is now hoping to use up all his bad luck this year.

"I hope we use all the bad luck in the remaining races of the season and next year we don't have any," he said. "I was very lucky in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

"This year I'm being very unlucky and you can see it every race. I wish that in Hungary I'm unlucky again. I'm used to it."