Why Ferrari is going nowhere

Monza is all about Ferrari. It's the holy grail for the tifosi and they swarm to the park outside Milan to see real success.

Third and fourth behind the two Mercedes was as good as it was going to get, so there's reason to be satisfied from the perspective of getting the best out of the machinery available. But what Ferrari and the tifosi need to see is progress, and it's wrong to see Sunday's result as a proper success for a team of that stature.

The Italian fans want to see a return to the days when Ferrari drivers were standing on the top step of the podium at Monza. But, on current evidence, they might just have a bit of a wait on their hands.

Formula 1 is tough, it always has been, but is even more so now with the engine regulations that are in place. Gone are the days of just running a few more revs to find more power. The overall power unit concept is much more important now. Get that wrong by a few percentage points and you are down by tens of horsepower.

Mercedes is doing an excellent job, Red Bull is knocking on the door again, and when Renault finally gets its package to the level that I am pretty sure it can reach then Ferrari will either have to take a major step forward or get left further behind.

Next year's change in regulations means the cars are going to be dominated by aerodynamic performance again. At the moment, chassis and power unit performance are not far off equal when it comes to getting the best out of a package.

For 2017, that will change and the team that adapts to these aerodynamic changes best will lead the pack.

It would be foolish to think Mercedes or Red Bull will not do the best job. They have done so for the last seven or eight years. They also have stability in their workforce, which is very important when it comes to adapting to regulation changes, and this is something that Ferrari is lacking.

If you look at Ferrari's Monza performance over the last three seasons since the new engine regulations were introduced, it doesn't really make for good reading:

2014
Qualified: 7th/11th (+1.571% off the fastest lap time)
Race: 9th (+63.535s) and DNF

2015
Qualified: 2nd/3rd (+0.281% off the fastest lap time)
Race: 2nd (+25.042s) and 5th

2016
Qualified: 3rd/4th (+0.589% to the fastest lap time)
Race: 3rd (+20.990s) and 4th

So Ferrari made a great step forward from 2014 to 2015. While the drop off in performance was relatively small to this year, you have to consider the fact that Rosberg was on a Sunday afternoon cruise and could have won by a far bigger margin had he been pushing.

To overcome this deficit and to prepare for next year's new regulations, Ferrari needs to bring in a few top-end people, especially on the aerodynamics side.

I thought Ferrari had this with James Allison, but obviously that's not the case. Ferrari needs some good people and to give them stability to build the depth of the team, very much like Ross Brawn did through his building years with Ferrari in the late 1990s, and then as Mercedes did when it bought Brawn GP.

These things don't happen overnight. Anyone who expects them to just doesn't understand Formula 1. And it wouldn't hurt if Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne would learn to smile a little.

Times might be tough, but it is amazing how much motivation a simple smile can give to a team in which everyone is working their backsides off.

After all, given the current trend it could be a tough few years for Ferrari.

RICCIARDO SHOWS HIS CLASS

Monza wasn't exactly a cliffhanger, with only one real overtaking manoeuvre during the race when Daniel Ricciardo passed Valtteri Bottas into the first chicane.

It was a brave outbraking manoeuvre by Ricciardo, and would be called a block pass in bike racing. When they both got to turning the steering wheel, Ricciardo was still behind, but because he knew Bottas was a gentleman it came off.

I wonder what the outcome would have been if it had been Max Verstappen he was trying to overtake. Verstappen is carving a reputation as not being easy meat in battle and that's what you have to do if you are going to be one of the greats.

MAKING WAY FOR YOUTH

The build-up to the Italian Grand Prix at Monza seemed to be all about retirement. From my point of view, it's great when a couple of the 'old boys' decide enough is enough because there is a chance that one, or maybe even both, of the drivers who replace them becomes another Max Verstappen.

That can only be good news for F1, and certainly Stoffel Vandoorne, who is replacing Jenson Button (who, it should be said, has technically not retired from F1 and supposedly could come back in 2018), has shown a lot of promise.

Button and Felipe Massa have had a good run, starting well over 500 grands prix between them, so it is time for them to call it a day. Massa wasn't going to get a drive with a winning team, so rather than getting pushed off while desperately trying to hang on, he decided to retire.

He almost won the world championship in 2008, but those days are long gone. Perhaps IndyCar or the World Endurance Championship beckons because he seems to want to keep racing. Whichever he decides to pursue, he will enjoy it and do well.

As for Button, his driving style hasn't always been well suited to the car he's had to drive. When it did, such as in the early stages of the 2009 season with Brawn, he won six out of the first seven races and went on to win the title. When it didn't, he often struggled to adapt.

He has got an ideal position, he will still be well paid by McLaren, be its spare driver should Fernando Alonso slip on a banana skin, and he can help Vandoorne to settle into the rough-and-tumble world of Formula 1.

He will be a good mentor, as he has seen it all from both the back and the front of the grid. There is a big chasm between success and failure and both can come upon you very quickly. Just ask Daniil Kvyat.