Fernando Alonso says Red Bull is still the dominant force in Formula 1

Both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber called for their team to respond to the growing threat from Ferrari and McLaren in Germany, but despite scoring more points than any other driver over the past three races Alonso says Red Bull remain the team to beat.

"No, I don't think so," Alonso said when asked whether Ferrari was close to replacing Red Bull as the dominant marque. "First and second in Silverstone qualifying, first and third at the Nurburgring - (they're) still dominant.

"We need to be both cars in the top three constantly in qualifying and in the race if we want to say that Ferrari is dominant in this moment."

Despite such an assessment, Alonso was in bullish mood about his own race prospects as higher temperatures and the return on Pirelli super soft rubber is expected to suit the Scuderia.

"I have no doubts that the softer tyres work a bit better with our car, so we can maximise them in the race. Obviously we also want it as hot as possible, but at the moment it is raining so hopefully we will see for Saturday and Sunday.

"We repeat a couple of times, we had a wind tunnel issue (at the start of the season), so we struggled to understand our problems. It was a shame to have these three or four months with the issue, but now it is also very encouraging that the problems are in the past and we look confident for the rest of the season and also for next year.

"I think we need to make another step forward (in Hungary) though because as I said Red Bull is still the reference."