Fernando Alonso has compared Aston Martin's position in Formula 1 this season to "playing in the Champions League".

The Silverstone-based outfit was the biggest surprise in the first half of 2023, with the two-time world champion finishing on the podium in six of the opening eight races.

Aston Martin has been unable to maintain that form as other teams have improved, but Alonso believes that is a result of the team finding themselves in uncharted territory.

“I think this is Formula 1 and things are changing so quickly,” he explained on Thursday ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix.

“I think it was a surprise for us that the car was fast [in the early races], but I think the team was outstanding over the winter, understanding what the problems were last year.

“I think reliability, everything, strategy, we did things really good in most of the races to get those results.

“It’s not only the pace of the car, you need to master everything in the weekend from Free Practice 1 until Sunday.

“I think we are like playing in the Champions League at the moment and we are finding ourselves with the very top teams trying to overdevelop as well off-track.

"This is going to be the biggest challenge for Aston Martin now.”

Looking ahead to the final 10 races, Alonso hopes Aston Martin can once again be regular podium contenders, though conceded it wasn't a necessity.

“I will not be disappointed," he said on if he didn't claim another top three in 2023.

"In the last few events we were maybe not as competitive as the first part of the year, but we still scored points in every single weekend.

“Now in the second part of the year, I think we want to go back to a more competitive position.

"Everything is so tight now behind Red Bull with Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin and McLaren. So we want to be in that fight until Abu Dhabi and that’s the aim.

“It is more difficult now, so yeah, it’s going to be difficult to get another six [podiums] in the second half.

“But I will be happy with two or three, I hope.”