Virgin Racing's Richard Branson believes the day will come when Ferrari regret their recent criticism of Formula One's newcomers.
Ferrari have been vocal in their condemnation of the FIA's choices for this year's four new teams. At the time of the announcement, the Scuderia accused motorsport's governing body of dumbing down the sport, saying: "Wouldn't it be more appropriate to call it Formula GP3?"
And they didn't stop there.
Earlier this week, in a column called 'the Horse Whisperer' on their website, the Italian marque summed up their opinion of the four new outfits: "Two teams will limp into the start of the Championship, a third is being pushed into the ring by an invisible hand - you can be sure it is not the hand of Adam Smith - and, as for the fourth, well, you would do better to call on Missing Persons to locate it."
However, Branson, whose Virgin team is one of the four new entries, has warned Ferrari that the day will come when they are made to regret their words.
"I think that it is a bit sad to see Ferrari carrying on with those kinds of words. F1 needs new teams, and Ferrari won the battle of making sure the new teams were shackled," said the billionaire.
"For testing, we built a new car and we are going to have to have exactly the same amount of practice time as Brawn or Ferrari or the others, who have had years and years and years to get their cars to a certain stage.
"We are not complaining about it, and we are happy to go on with it, but Ferrari should be welcoming new teams because they make the sport much more exciting.
"And we will make them look better for a year or two until we catch them up. Ultimately, I think the new teams will give Ferrari a run for their money and I think will make the sport more exciting - particularly as the budgets come down to more realistic levels."
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