While everyone was expecting Sergio Marchionne to blast once again the Scuderia after another failed weekend, the Ferrari chairman refrained from adding insult to injury.
Sebastian Vettel's demise after four laps yesterday at Suzuka likely crushed his chances to win the world championship this season.
Marchionne however, vowed to fight on.
"The season is not lost, there’s still all to do," he said as he visited the New York Stock Exchange for Ferrari's 70th anniversary.
"I won’t talk of bad luck, I don’t believe in it," he added.
"The important thing is to not lose the confidence that has brought us so far.
"I‘m delighted with what the team has done and I have tremendous confidence that in the next four races we will be able to close most of the Mercedes gap."
"There's still time to catch up, the car has made enormous steps forward. Ferrari is on a par if not superior to Mercedes and we can't give up."
Marchionne also said that Vettel's engine issues at the start of Sunday's race were due to a "59-euro spark plug that impacted a car that costs millions of euros".
"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," he said.
Following Lewis Hamilton's win in Japan - the Mercedes driver's fourth in five races, Vettel has now drifted 59 points behind his rival in the drivers' standings.
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
