Fernando Alonso is slightly confused about Alpine's lack of race pace compared to their strong one lap performances. Alonso, who starts from ninth place for the French GP, thinks the situation is complicated but is hopeful that the team can make a step forward at Paul Ricard. "We do have some theories, and we investigate obviously after every race what is happening," Alonso told RacingNews365.com and other select members of the press. "But there is not a clear trend for when we had good performance. "For example in Portimao, in the race, we had less degradation than the others. We had very good speed and we were overtaking people in the last couple of laps, like crazy. So, it is nothing that it will tell us one way or the other [what is happening]. "Every weekend seems to change, so it's a little bit unknown for the race. But Friday here [in Paul Ricard] looked okay, so let's see what we can do." Alonso believes Alpine must be realistic about their performance against their midfield rivals including Ferrari and McLaren who have been on the podium in the last two races. "I think big points is going to be a challenge," said Alonso. "I think we have very competitive people around us. The two McLarens, the two Ferraris, and Pierre Gasly. "And obviously there are people who are starting from 11th with a free choice of tyre. We have to be realistic about the chances to score big points. I think there's going to be few points available but in a normal race not so many. "We know that there are a couple of teams, cars and drivers that are stronger than us in one lap pace and in the race as well. "Ferrari, they were in pole position in the last two races, and now they're starting just in front of us. Are we thinking to beat them? Hopefully. But they were in pole positions in the last two races, so I don't know if we are exactly in the same league, at the moment. Let's see what we can do."
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