Fernando Alonso believes Aston Martin has been impacted by the recent change of construction of Pirelli's tyres, and suggests his team isn't the only outfit that has suffered from the adjustment.
At Silverstone two weeks ago, Pirelli introduced a more robust tyre across its selection of compounds, having developed the product in response to the increased load levels of this year's ground-effect cars.
Alonso suggested after the British Grand Prix that the new tyre specification had perhaps weighed on Aston's relatively low-key performance at Silverstone.
But in Hungary, where he qualified P8, the F1 veteran appeared even more convinced about that assumption although he also believed that Aston had been out-developed recently by its direct rivals.
"You see the upgrades from everyone on Thursday when they have to publish the FIA documents and we see for 12 rounds now what we brought to the circuit and what the main rivals they brought obviously it’s a bit different there," he said.
"So we need to speed up, we know, as a team also in many different areas one would be the rate of development into next year’s project."
©AstonMartin
"Also, it is a coincidence that when the new Pirelli tyres came in Silverstone there are a couple of teams that were struggling more, and a couple of teams that are very happy with the car now.
"It's not only us, I think Red Bull has clearly been hit with those tyres, they've been one-two in every qualifying, one-two in every race, and now they are not even on pole position.
"Checo [Perez] is struggling to be in the top 10. At Silverstone I think Max was only three seconds in front of Lando. So I see things a little bit abnormal since Silverstone."
©AstonMartin
Alonso's P8 qualifying result was only one spot better than at Silverstone. But overall, the 41-year-old was happy with his car's performance at the Hungaroring.
"We made a few changes into qualifying and I felt good, I felt fast," he said.
"And the average time to pole position has been four or five tenths, and it's four-tenths today, so it was a normal qualifying for us.
"But obviously seven cars [ahead of] us. So I think even though it was a normal qualifying for us, it was an outstanding qualifying for some of our main competitors. So result-wise, it's not a great Saturday."
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
