Fernando Alonso and Ferrari to 'attack' in the second half of the season

With updates to the team's 2011 challenger having helped Fernando Alonso finish in the top two positions at four of the last five races, its world championship hopes have been reignited.

And although the 86 points deficit between Alonso and world championship leader Sebastian Vettel is still huge, the outfit knows that if it focuses on delivering as many wins as possible now then it can think about the title later.

Plus, with McLaren having rediscovered its form as Lewis Hamilton took victory in Germany, the fact that having two teams battling Vettel could help boost both their chances of success.

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said: "For sure what we need to do is attack every race and then, not now because it is too far away from us, later on to see what is happening [in the championship].

"Of course the only thing we can say is that the more drivers and the more cars that can fight, the easier it is to score more points and minimise the gap. At the moment the gap is still very big."

Although Alonso was unable to beat Hamilton at the Nurburgring, Domenicali has said he is hugely encouraged that the team was so competitive in the cold German temperatures - because it has struggled all year in trying to get its tyres into the right operating window.

"We know that in these conditions our problem is the warm up," he said. "We need to be very happy to see a car that performed so well in these conditions, which for sure are not the best for us.

"I am happy to see that in the last couple of races that Fernando has scored the most number of points, and that means we have come back to the performance that we should have. I am expecting a second part to the season that will be interesting for sure.

"I really feel that the Red Bull is still the strongest team, but McLaren showed here that they were very good, so I am not underestimating the competitors. But I am very happy to see the people have reacted and the performance is where we need to be.

"Now we go to Hungary where I don't forget that last year after the win in Germany we were one second off the pace of Red Bull, so we need to keep our feet on the ground and keep working on the development of the car."