Despite trailing in Japan, Fernando Alonso and his Ferrari team remain determined to overhaul their Red Bull rivals in the final three races of this year’s F1 championship.

Alonso, who finished third behind championship leader Mark Webber and the Australian’s Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel in Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix, said he believed staying on the podium holds the key to the title.

He is now joint second with Vettel in the drivers’ title race with 206 points, 14 behind Webber.

“We need some luck, we need some wins too, but mostly I feel that it is important to keep arriving on the podium to stay in the championship,” Alonso said yesterday.

“This was always going to be a difficult race for us because I think Suzuka was for Ferrari the worst circuit we go to in the last races of the year,” the Spaniard added.

Team boss Stefano Domenicali said Ferrari would now work intensively on improving their qualifying performance so that Alonso has a good chance of starting at the front of the grid, ahead of at least one of the two Red Bulls.

Alonso’s team-mate Felipe Massa crashed out of Sunday’s race at the first corner.

Domenicali said: “In race pace we were not too bad, but the problem is that if you start behind it is very difficult with this kind of performance to get ahead.

“Here (at Suzuka) with the hard tyres, above all, we were really very good. I know that maybe they (Red Bull) were controlling a little bit the pace, but in the end everyone was pushing.

“I think they are doing a great job in preparation and qualifying but, as we have seen, if we do a better job than them in qualifying then we are able to beat them (in the race).

“Otherwise it is tough, but we will see in the next races – everything is possible.”