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Stefano Domenicali said he was left "frustrated" by Felipe Massa's drive-through penalty in the Brazilian Grand Prix which ultimately cost Ferrari second in the constructors' championship.

With Lewis Hamilton colliding with Valtteri Bottas, Ferrari was on for a third and fourth place at Interlagos which would have seen the team leapfrog Mercedes in the constructors' standings. Domenicali said he felt the penalty was too severe for Massa and that it had big consequences for the team.

"Frustrated in a way because retrospectively of course without the penalty - which in my view was a little bit too harsh - to Felipe then it would have been a different situation," Domenicali said. "So that's unfortunate, but as I said for me that was a little bit too harsh.

"There was a warning and we reported it to him but in my view it was very harsh. If you think there was not really any safety aspect, there was not really any gain of any kind of advantage. You see many times track limits are not respected but anyway, that decision was taken. As I said for me it was very harsh considering the result."

However, Domenicali still found some positives in Ferrari's season and said it was important to remember how close the team had been to success last year too.

"I'm happy at least that we finished the race in a championship that was tough this year, especially in the second half of the season, with this result. I'm happy for the fact that the team has always acted very, very well at the racetrack, in the pit stops, with the strategy, no engine blow-ups; I think the only manufacturer that did that so I'm pleased to hear that.

"So there are positive signs in a season that of course was not really very good and positive for us, but at the end of the day we need to recover from the mistakes and the problems we had this year. I talked to my engineers, heads down in to work and nothing more to say. The changes that we've done I think are the right ones to make sure that next year we will be fighting not for second position but for first as we were here last year. And don't forget last year without events that were out of our control we would have been in a different position."

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