Alonso says next two races are crucial

The Spaniard thinks that his title dreams will effectively be over if he loses further ground in the points' standings at the next two races - but he is upbeat that he can remain in the hunt right until the end of the campaign.

"Obviously the less races there are until the end of the championship, the more problems you have if you have a bad weekend," Alonso said at Monza.

"This weekend is maybe not the last [chance], but one of our last chances will come here or Singapore to recover some good points.

"There are still six races to go and I am still confident that if you are on podium in all six and win some of them it is possible to be a contender in last race.

"We are still more or less calm of our chances, but knowing that Monza is an important race, and Singapore is. Another DNF or another problem is probably a last chance or a bye bye to the championship."

Alonso thinks that the way the points gap between the title contenders spread out so quickly in Belgium - when he, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button failed to score - is indicative of how fast the championship situation can change.

"Before Spa we were all in a very small difference, small gap and after one race the gap has increased," he said. "But things change very quickly race-by-race, and this year with the new points system it can change very quickly.

"Our aim is to do six races at top level, best level we can, and then we will see."

Alonso is optimistic about his chances for Monza and reckons that Ferrari has got to the bottom of why it was not as strong as expected in Belgium.

"We should be competitive here," he said. "Spa didn't get us what we expected, and the performance we had in Spa was not as good as we wanted. We made some changes and some analysis of what happened in Spa and I think we understand some of the problems, and here we arrive with a better package that suits Monza."