Jordan: GPMA selfish and greedy

Renault, Honda, Toyota, McLaren-Mercedes and BMW-Sauber are still to commit to Formula One beyond 2007 as they seek a better deal with Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

The carmakers, through their GPMA company, have threatened to create a breakaway championship if their demands are not met. A solution, however, seems to be close after Ecclestone said this week a new deal was almost imminent.

Jordan, who was forced to sell his Formula One team to Midland last year, says the manufacturers are not thinking about what's good for the sport.

"The manufacturer teams have really lost it and left me disappointed," Jordan told The Daily Express in an interview.

"They have had no consideration or regard for the individual teams. They have come into a championship which was created and run by private teams and with their cash have totally abused it.

"At the moment they are throwing away $500m in testing behind closed doors. They need to get a grip on this immediately. It is impossible to consider a team without the right budget could win a race. It is not so long ago that a private team could win - Jordan in 1998 - but those days have gone.

"We have seen Alex Shnaider and Dietrich Mateschitz, who are successful and reputable businessmen enter F1, but can even they succeed?

"Now the manufacturer teams go there, write down what the requests are, take it away for corporate discussion about how it suits them. No one thinks of the good of the sport. What they are doing just now is nothing short of madness, it's greedy and selfish," Jordan added.

"The manufacturers will go, it's in their marketing strategy, and what will be left? I applaud Ferrari, who have a long, hard continuous involvement. Anything they get they deserve.

"But I am aggrieved that no young person can afford to get in as I did. If the lunatics can be controlled I would have every reason to come back and look at F1."

Jordan also said that the manufacturers should focus on improving the show for the fans, instead of spending their time thinking of how to get more money.

"No one sees a better race, nobody. The guy in the stand doesn't see anymore excitement," the Irishman added. "If anything it is worse because of the sophisticated aerodynamics they work on in testing which makes overtaking impossible.

"Fans want an exciting race and half the time they are not getting it. I say 'Guys get real and be responsible'. This is now the biggest budget championship. It is a joke."

And although Jordan admits he loved being a Formula One team boss, he claims he is not missing being around in the paddock.

"I loved being in it and I'm loving life being out of it, but I have to say in the current environment I don't miss it," he said.

"I know the circumstances have changed so dramatically so much in the last few years that I would not have been able to continue, never mind compete."