Ecclestone believes Schumacher will stay

"Of course it's better if he stays — he's the superstar — it's good to have superstars," Ecclestone told The Times. "Even if he won or lost the championship, I don't see any reason why he should stop."

Schumacher, at 37 the oldest driver in the field, is yet to decide on his future ahead of the end of his current contract with Ferrari.

The seven-time world champion is fighting for another title this year, being just 10 points behind rival Fernando Alonso with five races remaining.

Ecclestone believes that Schumacher will want to stay in Formula One regardless of the championship result.

"He's probably still going to get paid what he's worth, which is a considerable amount of money, but then he's still bloody competitive — that's for sure," Ecclestone added. "Any idiot can see that and I can't see why he shouldn't feel anything other than motivated.

"If he didn't win the championship and he was close to winning it, he'd probably want to have another go and if he does win it, he'd want to defend it, I would have thought.

"I think it depends an awful lot on the team," Ecclestone added. "If suddenly the team's key people decided to leave, that might influence him."

If Schumacher decides to retire, however, Ecclestone is adamant the sport has enough stars to keep its appeal.

"When Ayrton Senna died people said to me 'F1's finished' but I like to believe that F1 is perhaps a bit bigger than any one individual," Ecclestone said. "And, in any case, the public at large like to see young guys come through.

"Think of Alonso — nobody had heard of him until three years ago — and there are plenty of new kids out there at the moment."