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Fernando Alonso is unsure whether Ferrari can close the gap to Formula 1 pacesetter Mercedes at the Canadian Grand Prix, because development of his car has been inconsistent.

Ferrari has lacked speed compared to Mercedes and Red Bull so far this season, though reliability and consistent scoring means Alonso is third in the drivers' championship after six races.

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The Scuderia has an engine update planned as part of a big development push for this weekend's Canadian event, but Alonso is not convinced it will be enough to close the gap to Mercedes, which has won every race so far this year.

When asked by AUTOSPORT after the recent Monaco GP if the major updates planned for Canada would help move Ferrari forward, Alonso said: "We'll see. We need to work hard and deliver what the expectations are.

"We bring new parts basically to every race so far this year.

"Some of them worked fine, some of them didn't work, so we'll just try to make the most of the new parts in Canada, try to have a good Friday and move a little bit closer to the podium.

"I have no doubts we will be more and more competitive every race, but how much I don't know."

Ferrari technical director James Allison has said his team needs to show more creativity to get back on terms with F1's frontrunning teams, and Alonso reckons the F14 T has plenty of development potential because of how far behind the car is at the moment.

"Definitely we have potential to improve the car because we are in a low performance situation, so many things can be improved - power unit, aerodynamics, starts - many things [because] we are not at the moment in the place we want to be," Alonso added.

"There is a long way to the end of the championship, and if we do improve those areas we could still have some good races and results."