Front Control Arm Question

[Decolliber]

re 88 Carrera:
The front control arms have a bracket on the front that mounts on to the front suspension pan. Poking at the underside of my suspension pan I have found a small area (about 2" x 1" at the most) weak with corrosion. It is about two inches to the right of the inner bolt for the left hand control arm mounting bracket (under the battery tray). My question is this: does the control arm depend on the structural strength of the suspension pan at this point? Would I be risking some catastrophic front suspension failure by not replacing the pan?