Fernando Alonso: second in F1 2013 too ambitious for Ferrari

The Italian squad was hoping to secure the runner-up spot this year behind Red Bull, but instead Mercedes opened the gap to 15 points in the United States Grand Prix.

Alonso was the sole point-scorer for Ferrari at Austin, finishing in fifth, right behind the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.

The Spaniard's team-mate Felipe Massa was only 12th.

Alonso reckons there is little Ferrari can do at the moment to try to beat Mercedes to second considering the speed of the two cars.

"There's nothing we can do at the moment," Alonso said. "We fought to be in Q3, and we fought to be in the points on Sunday, so we need to do better in Brazil if we are to fight for the constructors' championship.

"Or maybe that was a too optimistic goal. We need to be more realistic and know that fighting for second place was a dream and maybe that dream is difficult to make come true."

Alonso did manage to secure the runner-up spot behind Sebastian Vettel in the drivers' championship, an achievement he admitted he was proud of given the lack of competitiveness of his Ferrari.

"I'm very proud. We clearly don't have the second quickest car, so to be second is a little bit of a reward for me. But we prefer to be 10 times 10th in the championship and one time champions than many times second," he said.

"It's probably one of my strongest points: to score many points on Sundays. Whatever car I have, whatever rules we race on, we fight for the championship until the last race."