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Fernando Alonso says Ferrari will need to find something extra in order to be a match for Red Bull and McLaren in this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

The Spanish driver and team-mate Felipe Massa seemed unable to be as competitive as its rivals during practice on Friday, and Alonso conceded his car was not as strong as the team had expected.

Alonso was fifth fastest in second practice, nearly half a second off the pace.

"For sure how competitive we are we have to wait until tomorrow, but it seems that Red Bull and McLaren and also Mercedes are quite competitive as we expected probably and tomorrow we will need to find something more in the car to be fighting with them," Alonso told reporters after practice.

He added: "We have to wait for tomorrow. I think so far in Belgium we were not as quick as we expected and here so far we are struggling a little bit with the pace and maybe we are not as quick as we wanted, so we have to find something extra for tomorrow."

Alonso admitted that if Ferrari cannot find that extra speed on Saturday, the team will need to wait until F1 is back to high-downforce tracks in order to return to fighting on top.

The double champion finished a distant fourth in the previous race in Belgium as his car also struggled to match the pace of his rivals.

"If tomorrow we are still slow, maybe we need to wait for the high-downforce circuits," he said. "It is strange how things change this year or how the characteristics of the car change.

Circuits we were okay at last year we struggle a little bit this year and circuits like Silverstone that we very difficult for us in the past this year was the best circuit so we need to wait, but for sure we need to find some more pace for tomorrow."