Ferrari will be "sweating" if they cannot get on the podium at the Canadian Grand Prix.
That is the view of Ted Kravitz, who thinks the Italians are well placed for a strong result in Montreal. But if they fail to take advantage, the Sky Sports pundit fears for the rest of their season.
Ferrari were on par with Red Bull in terms of car performance in the first half of 2022. But they dropped off in the second half of the season and have yet to recover.
Positive noises came out of Maranello over the winter but it soon became clear their car is not up to scratch. They have yet to win a race and have only one podium from seven races so far, courtesy of Charles Leclerc in Baku.
Carlos Sainz finished less than a second behind race winner Max Verstappen in Montreal last year. And the circuit seems to suit their car better than most other venues have so far this year.
With those factors in mind, Sky Sports pundit Kravitz thinks this Sunday's result may well be make-or-break for the rest of Ferrari's season. "I think for Ferrari it is a must to [score a] podium this weekend," he said.
"If they don't get a podium, if they let Fernando Alonso get back in with his podium habit or Mercedes get back in with a podium, following up the ones that they showed in Spain, then I think people at Ferrari will start to sweat as to where exactly this season is going."
Red Bull are the favourites again this weekend and will expect to take two of the three podium spots for themselves. As for who might challenged them, both team principal Christian Horner and long-serving adviser Helmut Marko believe Ferrari are the most likely to threaten them.
Asked where "the real threat" will come from this weekend, Horner said: "I think Ferrari. Their car here looks competitive. I think Aston Martin look like they were there or thereabouts in that session [FP3]. I think Mercedes looked like they struggled to generate tyre temperature, so it does seem to be moving from circuit to circuit."
That came after Marko had already declared: "Mercedes has become a lot faster, but I'm afraid Ferrari is even stronger here, you could see that. They drove about the same times as us and Leclerc's long runs certainly looked very impressive."
However, Ferrari made things difficult for themselves with a poor tyre strategy decision in the rain which meant Charles Leclerc failed to reach Q3. And Carlos Sainz, despite qualifying eighth, had a grid penalty looming over him after an incident with Pierre Gasly.
