Todt dismisses Schumacher speculations

Ecclestone told German television he believes Schumacher had decided to hang up his helmet at the end of this season.

"Michael is always competitive, but he has probably already decided to retire," Ecclestone told Premiere TV channel.

When asked about those comments on Sunday night, however, Todt responded angrily.

"I tell you something. Bernie Ecclestone does not have a single element to judge what Michael has decided," Frenchman said.

"You know, he has a good know-how about racing. But Michael joined Ferrari in 1996 and one day he will decide to stop. When the day arrives we will let you know."

Todt took the opportunity to also set the record straight on a decade-old belief, that Ecclestone was behind Schumacher's move to Ferrari.

"Bernie never knew and never made anything for Michael to join Ferrari. Never," Todt said. "Very often I have been reading that it was organised through Bernie, which is complete nonsense. It is not true.

"When we announced Michael, it was in August 1995 and I called Bernie just before to inform him. This is just to clarify the thing.

"The important thing is that Michael is driving, but Bernie does not have any idea whether Michael will be driving in the future or not."

When asked whether he finally knew who his drivers next year would be, Todt took a lengthy pause to consider his response.

"I am not going to speak about that," he said eventually. "It doesn't make anything if I know or don't know. I know a lot of things inside of Ferrari."

Ferrari will make an announcement about their driver line-up at the Italian Grand Prix, although Schumacher hinted earlier this weekend that his decision may not be made by then, because he could get an extension to make his mind up.

There are suggestions Ferrari may announce their full line up of drivers at Monza, as promised, however without unequivocally naming their two race drivers for 2007 among that pool.

This would allow Schumacher to make his decision at a later time, if he has not made up his mind by Monza.