Fernando Alonso believes Aston Martin must "focus" on the teams behind in the F1 constructors' standings, as well as those ahead.
With three rounds of the season remaining, the Silverstone-based squad finds itself languishing in seventh, having rounded out the top five teams for the past two campaigns.
Williams occupies that position, but is a considerable margin ahead, with 111 points. Racing Bulls, on 82, sits in sixth, 10 points clear of the Lawrence Stroll-owned team.
Across this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix, the sprint weekend in Qatar and the season finale in Abu Dhabi, considerable points-scoring opportunities remain.
However, Alonso has been quick to highlight the fast-encroaching Haas team, which now sits just two points adrift in eighth — and has the in-form driver of the midfield, Oliver Bearman.
The Briton has scored 20 points in the past two rounds, including matching the American outfit's best result in F1, with fourth place at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
So, when asked about the prospect of catching Racing Bulls in the standings, Alonso turned his attention to the looming threat from behind.
The two-time F1 drivers' champion replied to media, including RacingNews365: "I don't know, really.
"I think it depends a little bit on the weekend. Lately, Haas is scoring a lot of points, and probably we need to focus on that as well — not only the guys that we have just in front of us.
"Also, the people behind are pushing. So yeah, it's going to be tight until Abu Dhabi, and we will do our best starting from this weekend."
The final triple-header of the year poses a difficult challenge for teams, with three distinct prospects in the coming weeks.
Alonso, who has struggled for consistency from the AMR25, reflected on how last year's car often did not meet expectations — both good and bad — over this stretch of the season, something that leaves him unsure what to expect this time around.
It was queried at which of the final three events the Spaniard anticipates Aston Martin to be strong, to which he explained why he could not make a prediction.
"Difficult to say," the 32-time grand prix winner responded.
"I think we saw this year that a couple of circuits where we had high hopes, we underperformed a little bit. And some others, we were surprisingly fast.
"So difficult to say which one of the three will be better for us, but we will try in all three of them."
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