Fernando Alonso expects more pain for McLaren-Honda at Italian GP

Alonso and team-mate Jenson Button emerged from the Belgian GP feeling deflated after initially being hit by a raft of penalties for a double engine change, and then finishing a lap down in the race at Spa due to a lack of power.

While further penalties should be avoided at Monza next weekend, that lack of power will again be apparent at a circuit where it is most required.

Initially conceding to "no big difference" between the upgraded Honda engine that took to the Spa track and the one that helped him to fifth at the Hungaroring prior to the summer break, Alonso said: "There are minor steps these days in F1.

"When you add some extra horsepower you feel a bit quicker, but when you are a long way back it is always not enough.

"We will put things right and hopefully be more competitive, but it is a slow process, unfortunately, and painful, but we are all together going through this time."

Alonso is expecting more pain at Monza.

Asked how hard it is to race knowing he has no chance, the double world champion replied: "It's difficult, tough, the way it is at the moment.

"Hopefully we can learn some things, but Monza will also be difficult, the same as Spa, because of the nature of the circuit."

He insisted he was not losing heart despite having just two points finishes to show from the opening 11 F1 races of 2015.

"There are two ways you can approach this - be optimistic and work together with the team to solve the situation as soon as possible, or pessimistic and think it's not worth doing anything.

"I don't think the latter will be the exit of this tunnel. We will continue to work.

"Things are going better and better, it's just unfortunately as we saw in Spa and for Monza we don't see much as they are power-affected circuits, but we are going in the right direction."