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Fernando Alonso reckons Red Bull's criticism of the Pirelli Formula 1 tyres is simply the result of it not being able to handle defeat well.

Red Bull has been outspoken about Pirelli this season, saying the high degradation 2013 tyres prevent it from fully exploiting the speed of its RB9.

But ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, Alonso said that Red Bull should question its attitude, as he queried whether the reigning champion does indeed have the fastest car.

When asked to respond to recent complaints about the F1 format, which included Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz saying F1 was 'nothing to do with racing anymore', Alonso said: "It's more a question for them, they made those comments.

"Barcelona was a good race, not so good for some of our competitors. Some of these competitors claim they have a super car but the last three pole positions were for another car when the tyres are new.

"When you win too easily for some years, it's difficult to lose some races."

TALK IS STILL ALL ABOUT TYRES

The issue of tyres remains the main talking point in F1 at the moment, especially as teams still await news from Pirelli about exactly what changes are being made to the structures for the Canadian Grand Prix.

AUTOSPORT understands that in the wake of the FIA insisting that modifications are only made on safety grounds, the only changes will be the belt structure of the rear tyres to prevent the delaminations that have hit a number of drivers in recent races.

Even that minor change could have an impact on tyre temperatures though. That scenario could help outfits like Mercedes and Red Bull that have struggled so far.

Kimi Raikkonen, whose Lotus is one of the best on the tyres, was open-minded over the differences, and suggested that the performance of teams would not change that much.

"The fairest way would be to keep the same [tyres], but there is a lot of pressure to do something," he explained. "They did some changes [before] and they didn't really affect us.

"I don't think it is going to make a lot of difference whatever [changes] they make, but I might be wrong.

"I am sure we are not going to start complaining if we are going to have some issues. If they make stronger rear tyres then we could go faster, and it could help us. I don't really see that it suddenly makes one car faster than the others."

HAMILTON: TYRES ARE EVERYTHING

Lewis Hamilton hopes the Pirelli modifications will mitigate degradation.

When told that Mark Webber said it was wrong for a slump like Hamilton's second-to-12th plunge in Spain to be possible, Hamilton replied: "What I like about Mark is that he says a lot of things that are true and a lot of things that he is very blunt about - he says it regardless.

"For other people it is not that easy to do, and I will not put it the way he put it.

"Whether or not we have gone too far, only time will tell. I definitely don't think you should be able to be that far up and get lapped from second on the grid, but that is the name of the game at the moment."