Fernando Alonso urges Ferrari to push the limits of the regulations

The FIA was forced to clarify and tweak the rules during the season in order to stop some teams from exploiting loopholes that were allowing them to gain performance.

After the Monaco GP, some teams questioned the legality of a 'hole' in the floor ahead of the rear wheels of Red Bull's car.

Red Bull was also forced to alter the engine mapping of its engines ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Alonso reckons Ferrari should also try to find loopholes in the regulations in order to be more competitive.

"There's been a few times when other teams have been on the limit. Not us," Alonso told reporters in Madrid.

"There were I think three races where they had to change things in the car for the next races or they wouldn't be allowed to race, but they had already raced with those things on their cars.

"But this has always existed in Formula 1 and we need to find the limits in the rules.

"Always within legality, but we have to find the limits or a loophole like other teams do so we have a better performance."

The Spanish driver is also confident Ferrari can catch up with its rivals for the start of the 2013 season despite spending most of 2012 off the pace.

The Maranello-based outfit kicked off the season on the back foot after its car proved to be far less competitive than expected, and Alonso reckons his car was around seven tenths of a second off the pace when the season ended in Brazil.

Ferrari has decided to shut down its windtunnel during the winter in order to improve its technology but Alonso does not expect that to hinder the team based on how it improved its car during 2012.

"The Ferrari windtunnel is closed because they have to make some major modifications and we won't be able to use it for a few months," he said.

"But we will use another one which we have used during the past years, so I don't think it's a problem, or anything negative.

"Since the rules are not changing much and Red Bull and McLaren were ahead of us [in 2012], they have walked the road a bit already.

"We probably finished behind Lotus and Force India and teams we shouldn't be behind of, so we have extra homework to do this winter.

"But I'm not worried because last year we were 2.5 seconds off in the first test, 1.5 in Australia, and then we fought for the championship until the end, so next year has to be better I'm sure."