Alonso bullish after 'painful' Aston Martin slump

Fernando Alonso is optimistic that Aston Martin can carry its Sao Paulo Grand Prix momentum forward into the rest of the season after a "painful" slump.

The team returned to the podium for the first time since the Dutch Grand Prix in the Interlagos race with Alonso nabbing third by 0.053s from Sergio Perez.

It was his eighth podium of the year and came after a relative slump in performance from the Silverstone team that had cost it fourth place in the Constructors' to McLaren.

McLaren enjoys a 19 point lead heading into the Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi races, with boss Andrea Stella "wary" of the threat posed by Aston - who had been struggling with an upgrade that did not work as expected in the United States or Mexico.

Team Principal Mike Krack described a 'mix-and-match' approach to the AMR23 upgrades that also allowed Lance Stroll to claim fifth in Brazil for his best result since fourth in Australia, with Alonso positive of a good end to the season.

Alonso bullish over Aston chances

"We've been struggling for a few months, but the last two races were probably quite painful," Alonso told media including RacingNews365 after the Brazil podium of the races in the United States and Mexico.

"We had to experiment a little bit on a few things on the car to really understand the direction that we were going and we have to go for next year's car as well, so those races were painful, especially Mexico.

"We were very slow as a team in terms of performance, and it was nice to see everyone in the team very focused, the determination in the team was so nice from the outside to see and to go deep in the analysis and come back stronger

"I was a little bit concerned, no doubt, for the last few races and maybe the final part of the championship and now, I cannot wait to go to Vegas.

"It's a very different energy when you have a performing car.

"There are a couple of things that have been understood inside the team and the direction to go and we had some hopes for [Brazil] and they proved to be right."