A few years back, Jackie Stewart and Bernie Ecclestone appeared to be heading to the law courts, after comments the F1 supremo made about the three-time World Champion turned team owner.

Though we never heard any more of the case, it could well be that Stewart will issue another lawsuit, this time involving FIA President Max Mosley.

Talking to a group of invited journalists on Monday, Mosley described Stewart - who overcame dyslexia to become one of motorsport's greatest heroes, and one of the few drivers to retire at the peak of his game - as a "halfwit".

Mosley hit out at the Scot following comments he made in the wake of the World Motor Sport Council, at which McLaren was fined $100m and excluded from the Constructors' Championship. Stewart, who founded his own F1 team, which subsequently morphed into Jaguar and the Red Bull, described the punishment meted out to McLaren as "unjustifiable".

However, speaking yesterday, Mosley, pulled no punches.

"There's one particular ex-driver who because he never stops talking, never has the chance to listen, so he doesn't know what's going on," said the Englishman, according to the Daily Mail. "He said the FIA's decision would not have worked in a civil court. He has no qualification to say that. Then he starts saying this is personal between me and Ron Dennis, at great length, because everything he does is at extreme length.

"It's annoying that some of the sponsors listen to him because he's won a few championships," Mosley continued. But nobody else in Formula One does - not the teams, not the drivers. He's a figure of fun among drivers."

Then in a further display of spite, which in the eyes of many might give a certain credence to Stewart's comments, Mosley added: "He goes round dressed up as a 1930s music hall man," clearly referring to the Scot's tartan trews. "He's a certified halfwit."

Nasty, vicious and petty.

Then again, one should remember the old adage about stones and glasshouses. It wasn't Stewart, but another team boss who, a couple of years back, suggested that Mosley had his own 'final solution' for F1.