Optimum Sports : Hungary an 'important' weekend for Ferrari

Getty Images

Fernando Alonso reckons the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend is crucial weekend for him and the Scuderia - and that it will seriously affect the team's motivation should Sebastian Vettel extend his championship lead any further.

Alonso lost further ground to Vettel in Germany earlier this month and now lies 34 points back going into round ten at Budapest's Hungaroring.

“A good result this weekend would be very good for team motivation and our hopes,” he told Ferrari's official website.

“If we can close the gap to Sebastian before the break it would be a good thing, but if it increased, it would make it a stressful break for us and less motivating. So, it's an important weekend.”

Conditions for the race look set to be very hot, but Alonso is not overly concerned and said it won't influence how they get ready for the grand prix.

“Nothing changes in terms of preparation, whatever the temperature on Sunday, we will do our normal preparation,” he confirmed. “We just need to be a bit more open on strategy, in case we need to make an extra stop because of the tyres, but we won't know until we start practice tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Alonso has backed the changes made in the wake of the incident that saw Formula One Management (FOM) cameraman Paul Allen injured at the Nurburgring, when he was hit by a wheel that had come loose from theRed Bull of Mark Webber.

“Always when something happens in terms of safety, we must react and we are all in agreement on improving safety. However, finding the way to do it is difficult to agree on,” stated the Spaniard. “But I think reducing the pit lane speed limit cannot be bad, as it is the same for all the teams and there is less risk for the mechanics.

“Reducing the number of media in the pit lane during free practice can also be a solution, because sometimes there are too many of them in FP1 and FP2.

“In pit stops we are all trying to find the limits; of driver reaction time, the wheelguns and the procedure itself, so if they find a solution to increase the time of a pit stop [as has been mooted] to improve safety and it is the same for all the teams, I don't think anyone will disagree.”