Although he refuses to write off their chances of winning the title should they fail to score big at Monza, Fernando Alonso concedes that Ferrari have reached a "tricky moment" in the season.
Alonso finds himself 41 points behind Championship leader Lewis Hamilton after his DNF in Belgium and there has already been talk that Ferrari could switch their attention to their 2011 challenger should the team fail to narrow the gap at their home grand prix.
The Spaniard says everyone at Scuderia is aware that they have reached a crucial stage in their challenge for silverware this season.
"There is no point denying the fact this is a tricky moment of the season for us," he said on the official Ferrari website.
"In Monza, if we do not pick up a significant number of points and our competitors get the maximum and pull away in the lead, then the situation in the classification would become very difficult. I'm not saying it would be impossible to reach our target, because that kind of talk does not exist in Formula 1, but we are aware of the situation and we are ready to react to any eventuality."
Ferrari conducted a straight-line aerodynamic test after their disappointing showing in Belgium and Alonso is confident they will see better results in Italy this weekend.
"As I said last week, in Spa the performance of the F10 did not live up to our expectations," he said.
"The engineers have now carefully analysed the data from the race and from the aero test that Giancarlo Fisichella carried out down the straight at Vairano. It produced indications which led us to understand what did not work as it should have done and we have put those elements right for the next event. I am therefore confident about our chances of getting back to fighting for a place on the podium, just as we had done prior to the summer break."
