"We believe in ourselves and we will do a lot of hard work to get going and to take as many points as we can to be up front at the end of the year.

"There's no way we are resigning at all."

Schumacher holds the record of 19 successive podium finishes, set in 2001-2002. Alonso now has 14 in a row and could easily set a record this season.

"We will try to finish on the podium in all of the races," said the champion. "I don't know about the record but it's not very important...I hope to finish a lot more times on the podium this year."

So too does McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen after his third appearance on the rostrum in 2006.

The Finn, winner seven times last year, has yet to climb back to the top step and his third place at Silverstone was about as much as he could have hoped for.

"We are still too slow to try to fight for wins in the races," Raikkonen added.

"I think Monaco was a special place where we could challenge for a win but here it's back to reality."