SAO PAULO, Brazil - Lewis Hamilton's Formula One title is only on loan, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said on Monday after the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix.
"I would like to send my congratulations to Lewis Hamilton, the youngest ever world champion in the history of Formula One," the Italian said in a statement.
"He was a very powerful rival indeed and his win, close though it was, was well deserved.
"He'll have the number one on his car next season, but he can rest assured of one thing: we'll be doing our very best to put it back on a Ferrari."
McLaren's Hamilton, 23, won the title by a single point from Ferrari's Brazilian Felipe Massa after overtaking Toyota's Timo Glock only seconds from the end of the last lap of Sunday's race at Interlagos.
Ferrari lost the 2007 drivers' title won by Finland's Kimi Raikkonen but retained their constructors' crown.
Montezemolo said that, in all his years in Formula One, he had never seen a more exciting finish and congratulated his team for their efforts in winning the title for a record 16th time and eighth in the past decade.
"Winning for the eighth time in 10 years -- a feat unequalled at world level in any other team sport -- proves beyond a shadow of a doubt what an extraordinary group we are," he said.
"We have two great drivers in Felipe and Kimi also, and they deserve all our compliments for a job well done," he continued, hailing race winner Massa as a "great champion and a great man".
"Felipe in particular is in my thoughts as he crossed the finish line yesterday as world champion only to see the title slip through his fingers a few seconds later," he said. "I can only imagine how painful that moment must have been for him."
