While one might expect Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne to be pulling his hair out - or someone else's - following yesterday's spark plug issue that effectively ended Sebastian Vettel's title hopes, leaving the German 59 points adrift of his rival, instead the Italian-Canadian has demonstrated a fine line in (public) optimism.

"The season is not lost, there's still all to do," he told Italy's Class CNBC television in New York, according to Reuters.

"I won't talk of bad luck, I don't believe in it," he insisted. "The important thing is to not lose the confidence that has brought us so far.

"I‘m delighted with what the team has done," he continued, "and I have tremendous confidence that in the next four races we will be able to close most of the Mercedes gap."

Referring to the spark plug issue that sidelined Vettel, which follows cracked manifolds that affected both drivers in Malaysia, Marchionne, who last week warned of repercussions and changes in terms of suppliers and quality control, said: "It's a problem we've probably ignored over time because it was never of much importance but now we've had at least three occasions where we've really seen the devastating impact on performance. We'll fix it."