Alonso calls Aston Martin to make off-track F1 improvements

Fernando Alonso has called on Aston Martin to make improvements off-track in order to return to the form it displayed at the start of the season.

The Silverstone-based squad commenced the campaign in strong fashion, with Alonso scoring six podiums in the first eight races.

However, in the following eight rounds, just one podium has followed, while Aston Martin has also been overtaken by Mercedes and Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship.

Red Bull has dominated the season, winning all but one race staged so far.

Its streak came to an end at the Singapore Grand Prix, where Ferrari capitalised on Red Bull's woes to take the win.

“Red Bull was not dominant in Singapore, and we didn't take that opportunity,” Alonso told media including RacingNews365.com.

“So that was the thing that we need to obviously understand, we need to be aware of the challenge that we are facing. At the beginning of the year, we had a fast car.”

No surprise with drop in form

Alonso has admitted that Aston Martin expected to slip behind some of its rivals due to the resources available at other factories.

However, the two-time World Championship stated that it must look into how to improve its development department in order to consistently compete towards the front of the field.

“We already said at the beginning that we were facing a huge challenge in the season because our main competitors are huge organizations and very top teams,” he said.

“So it was more or less expected that Ferrari and Mercedes eventually they will match our pace and potentially go ahead.

“Mercedes took not too long to be in that position, Ferrari took a little bit longer. And McLaren now, they are very strong.

“So we have to accept that we need to raise our level off track as well and the rate of development has to be a little bit faster next year.

“This is a very new team, this is a new position for us. And even the new factory is just aiming to match this kind of development that other people can do during the season.

“It's not that we accept this and we just you know, are OK with the situation. We just know that this is a learning system on many fronts.”