One day after Ferrari won the Formula 1 constructors' championship but lost the drivers' title in the last 18 seconds of the final Grand Prix of the season, team principal Stefano Domenicali said he was proud of what the squad had achieved this year.
''It was an incredible end to the season and once again I think we have to be proud of what we have done. There is no reason for us to look back and say, what if, what if. You can't build anything on whatifs '' Domenicali said in a statement.
''The only thing I can say is that we are extremely happy with our achievement in the constructors' championship. In eight of the last 10 years we have been the champions. I am very proud of the whole team,'' he added.
Domenicali then turned his attention to driver Felipe Massa, who won Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix and was world champion for a handful of seconds from when he crossed the finish line until McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton in the last corners passed the Toyota of Timo Glock to clinch fifth place and the drivers' title by one point.
''I am very proud to have Felipe in our team. He showed great serenity and great maturity. I know it must have hurt to lose the championship by one point,'' the Ferrari chief said.
''I am very happy for Felipe, he had an incredible season. He had two races which will remain in the history of his growing career. One was Hungary, where unfortunately we had a problem but he was really fantastic. And then there was Sunday,'' he added.
''I think that Felipe has grown a lot. He is really a great driver. From a victory lost you can grow stronger inside and that will be the case for him,'' Domenicali said.
Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo also had words for Massa: ''I believe he deserves a very special mention. This not only for what he did on the track, dominating the race in front of his home fans and demonstrating how he deserved to be champion, but also for the maturity and sportsmanship he showed off the track. He is a great champion and a great man''.
Looking back at Sunday's race, Montezemolo said: ''In all my years in Formula 1 I've never seen such an exciting and incredible end of a season. I always said we would fight until the last curve of the last race of the season and that is exactly what happened''.
Montezemolo went on to echo the fair play shown by the Italian press and congratulated Hamilton on becoming the youngest Formula 1 world champion ever.
''He was a very strong rival who deserved to win, even if it was by just a hair. Next year he will have the number 1 on his car, but he can be sure of one thing: we will do our best to bring that number back to Ferrari''.
