The longest season in the history of the Formula One World Championship is at an end, a season which Ferrari 'wrapped up' some time ago.
Sadly, despite the promise, victory at Interlagos proved elusive, the changeable conditions favouring the Michelin runners.
Team boss Jean Todt has a lot to celebrate, but a time when he and his men should be popping the Champagne corks in celebration of a job well done, the Frenchman and his team are in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
As the team prepared for the long trip home, and an eventful off-season, Todt sat down to answer a few questions.
First off, he was asked to give his view of the weekend.
"2004 for Ferrari is a great achievement," he replies. "For the sixth time in a row Ferrari has won the Manufacturers championship, while Michael has won the Drivers' championship for the fifth time in a row.
"15 wins, 262 points out of 324 points which means 82 percent of the points. Nine second positions, eight first and seconds.
"As for this race, Rubens started on pole position and finished third. Michael started in 18th position and finished seventh - quite simply the two in front of us have been better, so good luck to them, they have been better and it shows.
"For those who don't want to understand how tough it is to succeed in Formula One, and if I may say so, how good Ferrari has been with Bridgestone, to be 15 times out of 18. That's an achievement.
"But definitely, today, for various reasons, we did not do the perfect job, we did not deliver a perfect job and we paid for it. If you have better people, or if you do something not as good as the others you get penalised, that was the case today for us."
So was it simply the conditions?
"No," he replies, without hesitation. "Maybe we didn't get the best out of the conditions, but on the other hand, I feel it's a good experience, because it shows us how difficult it is to win, just in case we forget. It gives us more motivation because we don't like to lose and for those who want to understand, it shows that what Ferrari is doing is unique. And for those who don't want to understand, bad luck for them."
Surely, it will be very hard to improve on this season, won't it?
"As I said, we scored 82 percent out of the possible points to score, out of 324, so it's 18 per cent - you know if I am a bit cynical - which can be improved," he says. "We have a lot of respect for our competitors. We lost three races, every time against a different team. There were 15 wins for Ferrari, one by one team, one by another and one of another one. They all were with the same tyre company, we were always, of course, with Bridgestone so it's interesting."
Then came the subject which has thrust Ferrari into the headlines for all the wrong reasons, an issue that everyone seems to have misconstrued, when it comes to Ferrari.. the initiative to cut cost. Here is Todt's opportunity to explain his side of the story.
"I don't want to seem arrogant, like very many people are arrogant in our business," he says, his eyes narrowing. "But in a way when you are taking a situation, you must do it without reacting in an emotional way, but in a pragmatic and logical way. Friday 5pm, last Friday, that means two days ago, there was a vote from the F1 Commission, which determined what should be Formula One in 2005.
"Nevertheless, some meetings were held," he continued. "Some ignoring the FIA, and we know very well that nothing at the moment can be implemented, whether you like it or not, it's just a matter of fact.
"Then yesterday (Saturday) there was a meeting where it's not true to say that Ferrari was not represented, Ferrari was not invited. I'm sorry, it's not my own language, English, but there's a big difference between being represented and being invited. So Ferrari was not invited. Why? Maybe somebody forgot to… I don't know, but we're in a world where we all have mobile phones…
"So anyway. They had the meeting and they came out with a proposal - and I must add that I'm not going to play childish, we were not invited so we are going to be against.
"If the proposals would be good… you know we are in favour of reducing costs. If we don't want Formula One to die, we have to reduce costs, but drastically not only by identifying for the top teams some less costs on testing because, those proposals, depending on the way you interpret them, after having tried to understand amongst the people who signed, they are not able to answer to me whether it's the same engine on Friday or you change the engine on Friday, that I don't know. Maybe you know, but I don't know.
