Fernando Alonso has said that he is fighting against Red Bull technical director Adrian Newey as the Milton Keynes team push on towards a third successive championship.
Alonso hasn't won a race since July's German Grand Prix and has slipped six points behind Sebastian Vettel.
"We tried to get the most out of what we had, but there was no way we could be ahead of the Red Bulls and McLarens. In the end, fifth place is not so bad, because it would have been easy to end up even further back if anything had gone wrong", he said.
"Clearly, finishing ahead of Red Bull is our aim, but today it was impossible to fight them, at least in qualifying: when we had a similar car, it was possible to fight with Vettel and we have even been ahead of them, but now we are fighting against Newey and, at the moment we cannot match him".
Alonso added that the F2012 features updates but not as rapidly as their rivals.
"We brought some updates here which have worked as we expected, but the others have also improved over these past two weeks: it’s down to us to bring something more significant for the final three races. I am not concerned nor demotivated, because I know that things can change very quickly and that high spirits on Saturday can easily turn to sadness on Sunday".
Alonso reckons that he has to attack in the race.
"We must try and make up places on the first lap and try to put pressure on our main rivals, ensuring they don’t have an easy race. There are sixty laps to work with and we will need to tackle each one as if it’s qualifying, by attacking. Clearly I hope I can soon have a more competitive car to try and fight them on equal terms on Saturday and not just on Sunday. I definitely am not the sort to give up and that’s my real advantage."
Felipe Massa lines up directly behind Alonso, with the Brazilian surviving a lurid moment at the penultimate turn during qualifying.
"In Qualifying Red Bull is faster, while McLaren was only just ahead and then it’s us: in the races, things are a bit different and we hope we can fight with these four cars for the top places", he said.
"There are many key points for tomorrow: the start, strategy, tyre wear and not making mistakes. We will need to be very focused because it will be a very long race. Today, it wasn’t easy to put together the perfect lap, partly because the track surface was still quite slippery. We have brought updates here which seem to work, but maybe it’s not enough to be ahead of our closest rivals".
