Fernando Alonso philosophical about Pirelli's tyre choice for the British GP

Pirelli confirmed on Wednesday that it will take the hard and soft compounds to Silverstone, the same rubber that was used in the Spanish GP, where Alonso finished a lap down after struggling with the harder compound.

Alonso said there was no choice for Ferrari but to accept that all teams will be using the same tyres, and try to do the best job possible to adapt.

"For us that means one more challenge, namely being able to make all types of tyre work as well as possible," said Alonso on Ferrari's website.

"Anyway, the tyre choice is the same for everyone and there's no point discussing if the pair of compounds chosen is more suited to one team or another. It's up to the teams to adjust the cars to get the best out of the tyres both in terms of performance and life."

Alonso, who finished in second place in the European Grand Prix last weekend, said he was happy to see Ferrari's progress in recent races.

But the two-time champion insisted the Maranello squad is yet to turn the corner, and reckons Silverstone could be a challenging weekend for the Italian team.

"We are moving forward, as could be seen in the last three races, but now we must also confirm the progress seen at Monaco, Montreal and Valencia on a track with completely different characteristics, which is definitely more suited to our main rivals," he said.

"At Silverstone, you need a lot of aerodynamic downforce and this is area where we are lagging behind. We will have some new parts, but there's a step from that to saying we will have made up the difference...Maybe!

"We must be realistic and accept that it's not possible that in less than two months - the time past since the Barcelona race - we have closed the gap that was seen at the Catalunya circuit. It wasn't a whole lap, because that was down to the way the race panned out, but it was definitely bigger than what we have seen in the last three races.

"We must continue to work on improving the car and then I am sure the win will come. When? I don't have a crystal ball to be able to give a definite answer."