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The world is still awaiting news from Ferrari on its driver plans for next year – with all the signs still firmly pointing to Kimi Raikkonen being announced this week as Fernando Alonso’s team mate.

If the Alonso/Raikkonen line-up is confirmed it will be fascinating to see how Ferrari manages the driver dynamic, given that the arrival of Fernando and Santander led to Kimi being squeezed out at the end of 2009.

However, clearly the team has weighed up the pros and cons of re-employing the Finn. The benefits of having two experienced frontrunners, especially during what will be a complicated season for everyone in 2014, are obvious.

What is known is that Felipe Massa is meeting Luca di Montezemolo in Maranello on Wednesday, when presumably the Brazilian will be told that his career with the team has finally come to an end.

Nico Hulkenberg had long been the preferred choice – no surprise given that he has effectively been in a holding pattern at Sauber this year. A contract was apparently ready to be signed, but after the Hungarian GP the team switched its focus to Raikkonen.

During August Red Bull in turn lost interest in Kimi, leaving Ferrari as his only realistic alternative to Lotus.

Last summer Ferrari was already in contact with Kimi about replacing Massa for 2013, and given that Lotus was behind with payments, he could have walked away from his contract for this season.

At the time he preferred to stay in an environment where he felt comfortable, and not surprisingly he was also reluctant to return to a team where his previous tenure had ended so unhappily.

However the ongoing financial squeeze at the Enstone team has caused him to think again, and one presumes that the departure to Maranello of one of its biggest assets, James Allison, has also played a part.

It’s understood that he’ll have a one-year deal, with an option for a second.

One of the questions is how even Ferrari could afford to employ two past World Champions, but Massa is not exactly cheap, and is believed to be on an $8m salary. In addition as soon as Red Bull lost interest in Kimi, his bargaining position became weaker.

On the plus side Kimi brings with him his huge fan base and obvious benefits for Ferrari’s current and future sponsors. Even Ferrari has to work to get media coverage these days, and TV numbers are everything to sponsors.

However, his well known reluctance to participate in PR events – a trait he shares with Alonso – may mean that Ferrari’s test and reserve drivers will be even busier with sponsor duties next season…

Massa meanwhile could replace Kimi at Lotus, possibly with a little encouragement from team sponsor Richard Mille, a company closely linked to his manager Nicolas Todt. Hulkenberg is also in the frame at Lotus.

Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali confirmed today that an announcement on the team’s 2014 driver plans is due soon – and insisted that no decision has yet been taken.

The consensus in the paddock in recent weeks is that the team will finally part company with Felipe Massa, with Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Hulkenberg the most likely candidates to replace him. A solid performance from the Brazilian in Monza might be too little too late to save him.

“The fact that we have not decided yet means that we are putting on the table all the elements,” said Domenicali tonight. “The fact that we are not taking that from the emotional point of view is because we want to put all the consideration before taking the right decision.

“And this is the reason why we shall let’s say announce and say something on that as soon as we finalise our discussion, because it is for sure not an easy decision for us, and this is something that we want to take the proper time in order to make sure that we take the best decision for our team.”

Sebastian Vettel may have made victory in the Italian GP look easy, but in fact the German had to overcome serious concerns about the Red Bull gearbox.

Both drivers were allowed by the FIA to change their fifth, sixth and seventh gears before the race after a reliability problem was flagged up, and in the race both were told to shift early in order to save their equipment. Despite that Vettel stayed safely ahead of Fernando Alonso.

“In the end we finished the race so it was not a disaster,” he said. “I think the heartbeat was a bit higher in the car and also at the pitwall, because we didn’t know what’s going on. Fortunately we didn’t have any big issues. Just the last 10, fifteen laps, tried to pace myself a little bit more and control the gaps. Obviously it was good to have these 1o seconds on hand, so I didn’t have to push that much and also I didn’t have to squeeze it all out of the tyres, even though I stopped a couple of laps earlier than Fernando.

“So that was positive. But yeah, we didn’t know how bad the problem is. We’ll probably know better once we strip the car next week and have a look inside the gearbox. We’ll probably know for both cars, I think, how close it was.”

Vettel admitted that the gearbox had given cause for concern all weekend.

“We already saw something on Friday, obviously something similar but Friday to Saturday we changed the gearbox and then I think in the race it was a surprise. We were obviously aware of the Friday problem but we didn’t see anything before that. There’s not much you can do; obviously once you start the car there’s nothing you can change so in the end, I think we were lucky or in a comfortable position to have a little bit of a gap especially towards the end.

“I don’t know what they saw on the pit wall in terms of data, if the problem got worse and worse and worse or stabilised, but obviously I tried to save the car, save the engine and gearbox as much as I can. In the end, I still have to go full power on the straights; basically try to short shift and save the car a little bit.”

Vettel said that the pace of the car at Monza had come as a surprise even to RBR technical guru Adrian Newey: “I think he was as surprised as we were. Just on the way up to the podium, he said ‘I thought that it was going to be damage limitation this weekend.’ I said to him ‘well, if damage limitation is like that, I want to have a lot of damage for the rest of the season.’ It was very unexpected. Already the pace on Friday surprised us.

“From a balance point of view, I was very happy with the car, similar to two years ago. So obviously we’ve been very competitive in Canada, very competitive in Spa on medium downforce tracks. This one was a little bit unknown. We haven’t been the fastest down the straights again, but fast enough, somewhere in the mid-field which is enough to use the strengths that we have through the corners, despite running as little wing as we can afford.”

Meanwhile Vettel had an interesting response to the boos he received on the podium.

“I said on the radio on the in lap that the more booing we get, the better we have done today. It’s normal. I don’t blame the people to be honest, I think their love of Ferrari is in their genes. It’s something very special. Obviously Fernando is in a great position on the podium, whereas if you’re dressed in any other colour it’s not the same, but still, it’s a fantastic race, a fantastic podium here.”

Nico Hulkenberg surprised both himself and his Sauber team by earning third on the grid in Monza, behind only the two Red Bull drivers.

He was helped by difficult days for Mercedes and Lotus, but nevertheless it was an impressive performance. He’s now hoping for a dry race.

“I don’t know either,” he said when asked where the performance had come from. “Really, a nice surprise to ourselves. I didn’t expect it, especially after a very difficult Friday. Yesterday we struggled a lot with the car, we were trying some different bits and bobs, but the guys have done a fantastic job to turn the car around and give me such a competitive car today.

“It was just that Q1, Q2, Q3 the car just got better and better, I think with the track improvement and with the right decision just to go for one timed lap, fuelled for one timed lap, was the right call. A burning lap which made this nice surprise happen.”

It’s worth remembering that Sauber had a second place with Sergio Perez in 2012, albeit with a more consistent car.

“Last year is a very different year. Obviously Sauber was very competitive very often last year in races. This year we have been struggling more, we’ve had a more difficult year, let’s put it this way.

“So I hope that the long run pace is good. From what I could see yesterday it should be all right. Definitely points are now the target.

“I think I’d like it to stay dry to be honest. I think that would be the easier option but we’ll take it as it comes. We haven’t run in wet or inter conditions, so it will be new to everyone. Obviously more challenging, but I’m open-minded.”

F1’s major team principals appeared to come out in support of Jean Todt today when asked about David Ward’s challenge for the FIA Presidency.

They admitted that they didn’t know enough about Ward’s manifesto – which was released today – but the consensus was that continuity would be good, and that the lack of controversy under Todt’s leadership has been an improvement compared with previous eras.

Such a view is perhaps inevitable – in public at least – especially as two of them worked closely with Todt at Ferrari.

“I think that in Formula One it’s important to proceed with stability and continuity – it’s one of the things that we are always missing,” said Stefano Domenicali. “So, I believe that what is important to keep as a relation with the FIA is this kind of thing, and so therefore I would like to see this happening – but of course it is not us that will decide that.”

“I don’t know David Ward well enough and I haven’t had time to look at his manifesto so I really can’t comment on him,” said Martin Whitmarsh. “I think Jean – and clearly I don’t know Jean as well as some of the people here – but I have to say taking him as the President, I think he has not used this sport for his own ego, which I think is very tempting. I won’t go back into the past, but I’ve seen and survived so far three presidents – only just, one of them – but I think Jean has acted in the interests of motorsport.

“I think for some people there hasn’t been enough commotion, action, controversy around him. Those are good in some people’s minds, but I think for those of us that participate in the sport, having some consistency, someone who takes decisions that are in the interests of the sport quietly and efficiently is very beneficial. We don’t influence the outcome, but I think Jean has done a good job so far, and we’ll see if he’s successful at continuing to be the President.”

“Obviously I know Jean very well, having worked together for 10 years,” said Brawn. “I think stability and consistency are very important. I think Jean has taken a quiet line, particularly in terms of Formula One and that – as Martin said, those of us who have experienced the other end of the scale – is welcome.

“And I think the opportunity to do another period as a president of the FIA is important, that we have that continuity. I think Jean has stabilised the situation and now wants to move on to progress things and I know the huge commitment he makes to the sport overall. We are part of motorsport but there’s a huge amount of other things going on that he’s active in. And I think the continuity is very important.”

Christian Horner made the point that Todt has yet to formally confirm that he will challenge Ward.

“I guess to have an election you’ve got to have more than one candidate. It now relies on Jean to become a candidate, and declare that he’s prepared to continue as well. I think as the others have summarised, he’s done a very good job in his presidency so far. It really has very little to do with us, it really is an FIA issue and between the different ASNs – and who knows, there may even be another candidate. I think Jean’s done a very good job and everything’s already been said.”

Stefano Domenicali says that Ferrari has to put pressure on Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull, and not just rely on taking advantage of any problems for the championship leaders.

Domenicali said after seeing Vettel’s pace in FP2 today that the Italian team’s main rival could be hard to beat in Monza.

“From what we have seen today, for sure above all in the second session, Red Bull seems to be very strong,” said Domenicali. “I have to say, we have seen them doing a lap time immediately, so normally this is a good sign. Therefore, I am expecting, for sure, them to be very strong. I think it will be a tough weekend, for everyone, because with this kind of temperature also the car will be under pressure.

“At the end of the day we need to understand all the data we have collected and make sure that we have selected the right configuration for the car for tomorrow, and this is really the work that the engineers will do tonight. I really hope that we can do a good weekend because in front of our people it will be very important and of course, as we know, if you want to put the pressure on the guys who are in front of us, we need to try to be faster and faster, and it is not enough to try to be very close to them in case they have an issue and then be ready, otherwise we will lose our opportunities.”

Meanwhile Domenicali said there was no news on Felipe Massa’s future.

“No, but I think that in that respect nothing has changed in our position. I know that everyone is waiting for information, waiting for news, as they have for all the summer, I have to say, because if you look back, all the summers were like that. Nothing to add on what we said a couple of weeks ago. We will take our time, there’s no rush to make a decision.

“We want to make sure that we make the right decision. We will support Felipe because this is absolutely clear: he’s a great guy, he’s very much a team player and this is something that we will discuss at the appropriate time.”