Alonso preparing for worst at Suzuka

The Spaniard warns Ferrari are due a bad race following on from the euphoria of the back-to-back wins that have re-ignited his championship challenge.

Fernando Alonso it could be Ferrari's turn to suffer at Suzuka in this topsy-turvy season.

Fernando Alonso has warned Ferrari are due a bad race following on from the euphoria of the back-to-back wins that have re-ignited his championship challenge.

The two-time world champion has spent much of this season in the doldrums with a car unable to seriously threaten the pace of rivals Red Bull and McLaren, but the Prancing Horse has enjoyed a resurgence that has seen Alonso emerge as a genuine contender.

Alonso's wins in Italy and Singapore have brought him to within 11 points of championship leader Mark Webber of Red Bull, but the Spaniard fears that sequence could come to a halt at this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix.

"It seems that you need to keep the momentum now for more races, but we saw this year that people that win two races, or have two or three podiums in a row, then they have some bad results and then they come back good," said Alonso.

"No one had consistently six or seven races at a good level for different reasons, so we expect there will be difficult moments for us.

"What we need to do is be prepared for those moments, not panicking, and score as many points as possible at every race.

"We know sometimes it will be a podium, sometimes maybe a fifth position - it is in those moments when we need to be united and not panic."

While playing down his own victory chances this weekend, Alonso also moved to heap the pressure on Red Bull, who won this race last season with Sebastian Vettel.

"Red Bull Racing are favourites again," he added. "The characteristics [of the circuit] are very good for Red Bull but it does not mean that they will win the race very easily.

"We saw this year some circuits that were good for Red Bull, it was not a 100 per cent victory for them because normally always something happened. So we need to keep pushing them.

"Of the four circuits remaining, maybe Suzuka is good for them - and then the other three are a little bit of an unknown.

"It will be tough. It will be difficult for us, but hopefully difficult for everybody else as well.

"There are five drivers with possibilities - McLaren will come back very strong, I am sure, pushing a lot in the remaining races. But it is still a very open fight."

With Vettel and McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button also vying for the title, Alonso believes the 2010 title race is providing teams with a unique challenge.

"It is different in a way because you need to control more drivers - more teams in terms of strategy," he said.

"Fighting with one driver only is easier in terms of covering him - if he goes out at the beginning of Q1 then you go out as well just in case something happens, so you have the same possibilities.

"Now with five it opens a little bit more the window for different things - and it is difficult to control all of them.

"Sometimes one of the five, or two, they are not completely in control in terms of strategy as well. It is difficult in terms of strategy for the engineers, in terms of strategy for people - but from a drivers' point of view, it is not a big change."