Alonso airs upcoming concern after making 'not good enough' claim

Fernando Alonso has delivered a "not good enough" message to Aston Martin following a run of grands prix around the fringes of the top 10 that has left him concerned ahead of the upcoming street races in Baku and Singapore.

After starting the season by finishing the first six grands prix in the points, including a notable high of fifth in Saudi Arabia, Alonso has only managed an additional four top-10 finishes in the last 10 races.

In the last seven events, in particular, the best the two-time F1 champion has managed has been an eighth place - in both the British and Belgian GPs.

With the Azerbaijan and Singapore Grands Prix up next, Alonso has made clear the Aston Martin's situation is not about to improve.

Asked whether he was expecting the car to perform better at the street circuits, he bluntly replied: "No. Until we have an upgrade on the car, this is what it is, and this is not good enough. Not good enough in Monza, not good in Zandvoort, in Spa, in Hungary.

"So I don't think there's going to be a big change in Baku, Singapore or Austin, unless we bring new parts. That's the plan.

"The team is aware of the situation, the team is working flat out. We keep united, we keep pushing. Last weekend [Dutch GP] was one point, here [Monza] we were close to two points, and that will be our battle."

Alonso - "Painful to lose points"

After collecting a point for 10th place in the Dutch Grand Prix, Alonso had to settle for 11th in Italy, although came agonisingly close to adding another two to his tally for this season.

The Spanish driver finished just over a second behind ninth-placed Alex Albon in his Willams, and just under two-tenths down on the Haas of Kevin Magnussen.

That left Alonso claiming that the race at Monza was "much, much better than expected".

He added: "I think the execution of the race was really good for us. We got a very good start, we overtook Nico [Hulkenberg], and then we were running 10th, close with Albon.

"We kept the pace, surprisingly, with the Williams, so I'm happy with that, and then we undercut him.

"So we were running ninth for majority of the race, and then we opted for two stops. We could not make it on one with our tyre degradation.

"We tried to catch up at the end and [finished] eight-tenths from Albon, one-tenth from Magnussen, so P11, only one second away from P9.

"It's very painful to lose the points because I think we deserved it, in a way, with a well-executed race. But yeah, the car is what it is at the moment and we need to get better."