Is Ferrari shooting itself in the foot? Our Italian GP verdict

Ferrari's home Formula 1 race always brings added pressure, but the truth is it never really got going at the Italian Grand Prix.

In fact, that's maybe being a little generous; as its drivers came to blows at the first corner and Lewis Hamilton's frustrations bubbled to the surface as the weekend went on.

Did it embarrass itself? Is Ferrari fumbling a title shot - or was that never even on? And what state is the drivers' title fight in after Kimi Antonelli's drive through the field to yet another win?

Here's our thoughts at the end of the Monza weekend.

First lap fight did go too far

Josh Suttill

Both Ferrari drivers need to take some responsibility for the Turn 1/2 shenanigans: Hamilton for diving down the inside of Leclerc and Leclerc for not leaving enough room.

Leclerc is right to say "we went too far" because Ferrari is shooting itself in the foot with team-mates racing like this.

They seem to race wheel-to-wheel like they're in an exclusive title fight.

Instead, not working together as well as they could - I include Ferrari's management of racing situations within this - is making a long shot title bid an even longer one.

Are we watching F1's next record holder?

Gary Anderson

As the races count down for Antonelli, it is becoming more of a championship for him to lose than one that someone will beat him to.

He did turn 20 last week, and at Monza driving from 19th to win without losing a front wing or ending up stuck in the gravel trap shows the maturity that age has brought to him. Keep on building on that and I'm pretty sure the championships will build to a level that could outdo both Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, who both have seven championships in the bag.

Yes, he did have one excursion for sure and probably a few more small one that we didn't really see, but in general it was a faultless drive in front of the pressure of his home crowd. Once it was evident that Ferrari just didn't have the car to get on the podium the tifosi really got behind him - and that win at Monza for an Italian, which is the first for 60 years, will be with him forever and his supports are probably now tenfold.

It's all rubbish about Russell losing out by not pitting under the VSC and I'm pretty sure I would have done the same pitcall. Russell was on the hard tyre intending to brave it out to the end, Antonelli was on the medium so it would have been just that little bit more difficult for him to get them to the finish, perhaps for the final five laps or so. Pitting for a fresh set of mediums lost him track position so he needed to push to the limit to regain that lost time and with it track position.

One thing I would have a word with him about is doing the fastest lap on the last lap while leading. Yes, it's impressive to show what you have up your sleeve but totally unnecessary, so Bono have a word.

If anything, Antonelli who started on the hards - intending to go long - lost out with the early red flag so in reality he had no choice other than going to a medium compound to comply with the two-compound dry-race requirement.

As for Ferrari, its little intra-team skirmish at the first chicane on the first lap - which I personally think was Hamilton being a bit bullish with his team-mate - and then Leclerc's crash coming out of the Parabolica scuppered any potential of either of its two cars challenging for a podium. In reality I don't think Ferrari had the pace anyway so it needs to eat a bit of humble pie and accept it has work to do.

I'm pretty sure it's another season and another championship of should've, could've, would've - but didn't because the car isn’t good enough.

A compound of bad fortune for Russell

Ben Anderson

This will be an especially tough blow to take for Russell, who would have come into this weekend expecting to slash his points deficit to Antonelli and ended up seeing it extended.

But, he needn't be too hard on himself. Firstly, there's a new/old engine offset there, which is perhaps why we heard them say in the cooldown room that they were using different strat modes during the race.

And, although Antonelli will rightly get plaudits for an excellent recovery drive, his victory from 19th on the grid was significantly aided by Charles Leclerc's crash and the VSC caused by Lance Stroll's Aston Martin conking out.

The red flag effectively made this a win from 12th on the grid rather than 19th, and the VSC gave Antonelli much fresher tyres with about 10 seconds fewer of race time lost compared to normal.

Had this race run normally, perhaps Antonelli still finishes second with all that incisive overtaking he did with taking the benefit of that new power unit, but I'm not sure he still beats Russell in a completely straight fight.

Russell will need to compartmentalise this outcome and try to disassociate it from his own performance - even though it looked a bit like the days when Lewis Hamilton used to devour team-mate Valtteri Bottas at Monza.

Was that entertainment?

Jack Cozens

I couldn't help but feel there was a sense of inevitability about that result. And even if there are enough races left for something to go wrong for Antonelli that you can't truly say the title race is done, the debate over which driver's been the most impressive this season probably is.

And I couldn't help but feel shortchanged by Sunday's race either. I know we're in the 'we're stuck with this, it is what it is' phase of this ruleset now until next year, so I won't dwell too long on that - we've all grown tired of that in one way or another.

It just felt like quite a comedown from - and contrast to - the out-of-the-seat, 'oh f***!' moment that Pierre Gasly's pole position offered a day earlier.

Even if this was something a little different to what we're used to at Monza, it didn't really move the needle any more: the drive-by passes back-and-forth - it just didn't seem very fitting, cliched though it is, for the Temple of Speed.