Alonso frustrated with Pirelli rubber

A disgruntled Fernando Alonso has become the latest driver to slate Pirelli’s tyres.

Pirelli find themselves in a position of being unable to please all of the drivers all of the time.

Now Ferrari star Alonso has added his voice to the constant stream of condemnation that has filtered out over the course of the season.

Ferrari would appear to be one of the teams hampered by a mid-season switch which saw Pirelli forced to change construction in light of the tyre blowout debacle that unfolded during the British Grand Prix.

Alonso could only qualify sixth fastest for tomorrow’s race in Korea, although will start fifth in light of Mark Webber’s 10-place penalty after posting the third fastest time.

With Sebastian Vettel claiming his third successive pole position, it was another blow to Alonso’s title hopes which are already thin as he trails the 26-year-old German by 60 points.

Pointing an accusing finger at Pirelli and the supersoft compound in particular, Alonso said: “It’s a tyre that cannot do five kilometres. If you push them you finish them, which is not normal.

“We have to be honest and say the quality of the tyres are on the very limit, which is the same for everybody.

“I’m sure all the cars, if they pushed 100% from the start of a lap, they would not do five kilometres.

“So it is not very helpful and not very nice to drive like this, at 95% of the lap.

“We are getting used to them being unable to last one lap, getting used to these marbles (bits of degraded rubber on the track) so you have two metres of racing line.

“Three or four years ago no-one would have thought this was possible.

“I am not blaming the tyres, they are what they are and it’s the same for everybody because I am sure with a better tyre the others could push more as well.

“But we need to find a compromise.”

Crucially for Alonso, he was four tenths of a second adrift of the man directly ahead of him in Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg.

“You could put on a hundred sets of tyres but you would not improve four tenths,” added Alonso.

“It’s okay, it’s the way it is. We know we have this weak point in the team, but also we have some other strong points where on Sunday we do everything perfect to maximise points.

“With this kind of performance, in four years we have fought for the world championship three times, so we do some good things, but it is true we are too slow.”