Alonso under no illusions that Ferrari has made significant gains ahead of China

The Spaniard won the Malaysian Grand Prix before a three-week break ahead of the Shanghai race, where Ferrari will have some updates for its car.

Despite the extra time to work on improving the car, Alonso is not expecting any miracles this weekend.

"I'm not expecting any surprises in this race, compared to what we saw in Australia and Malaysia," Alonso wrote on Ferrari's website.

"It's true almost three weeks have gone by, but that does not mean there was enough time to completely turn the car around in such a short time: we will have a few small updates, but nothing particularly significant and on top of that, we can expect that the other teams will also bring some new parts.

"Therefore, we won't change our approach to this grand prix: to get a good result, we will need to concentrate on ourselves, trying to be perfect and to exploit every possibility that might come our way over the weekend."

The Ferrari driver, leading the championship after his win at Sepang, says he is not thinking about specific targets for China, but rather about achieving the maximum possible.

"I don't want to come out with statements that our aim is to finish in this or that position, as these discussions are not worth the time spent on them," he added.

"We will have to do the maximum and bring home as many points as possible: a bit like ants who start something one day, knowing it will produce something worthwhile in the future."