Bernie Ecclestone has hit back at recent comments made by Luca di Montezemolo, accusing Ferrari of being "selfish" and "jealous"

The jealousy he refers to concerns Montezemolo's comments regarding the amount of money Ecclestone and his companies make from F1, compared to the people that actually provide the show, the teams and the manufacturers.

"It's pure jealousy, 100%," the Englishman told The Guardian. " Our company is only making what was agreed in the first place. Nobody has stolen anything but what concerns them is what our company is making. They would rather have less money themselves if it meant us having less. But I don't think this or the bank issue will be settled quickly. I'm a realist."

The "selfish" comment referred to Ferrari's policy not to let its drivers race one another, which has lead to widespread criticism of the sport and indeed scepticism as to Michael Schumacher's true talent.

"They have a policy to win the world championship," he said. "They don't want to take any risks, but what's a little bit bad is their selfishness over not wanting to compromise over the regulations to make the racing a little more challenging.

"The one-by-one qualifying, for example, has been a complete disaster, and Ferrari haven't done anything to help as they won't agree to change anything. They are terribly selfish like that."

Referring to Schumacher's domination of the sport - the German has now won five successive titles - Ecclestone believes that the German has had little in the way of serious competition and would have had it much harder had Ayrton Senna not perished in 1994.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm a Schumacher fan," said Ecclestone. "But would he have won as many championships as he has done if Senna had not left us? I very much doubt it. Of course Ayrton never had the luxuries Michael has had. Michael has never had anybody in his team who has been able, or been in a position, to challenge him, and he's certainly in the best team there is."

Then of course, one could argue that it was Schumacher that helped make it the best team.