F1 can survive without Schumi - 10th August 18:45pm GMT

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone says he is not worried that the sport’s popularity will take a hit when Michael Schumacher retires.

The seven-time world champion has been a towering figure in F1 for more than a decade, inspiring both adulation and loathing as he has rewritten the record books with his unprecedented achievements.

And while the mooted partnership of Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari in 2007 would be grist to Ecclestone’s publicity mill, the 75-year-old ringmaster says he is not losing sleep over the alternative scenario – that Schumacher will call time on his F1 career at the end of this season.

“I am not worried, Formula 1 will survive without Michael Schumacher,” he was quoted as saying by La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Ecclestone pointed out that Ayrton Senna’s death in 1994 had prompted similar doubts over F1’s prospects, which proved to be unfounded.

“And Senna was much more popular than Schumacher,” he observed.