Hamilton: Chasing Schumacher F1 records not impossible

Lewis Hamilton says while he isn’t targeting Michael Schumacher’s Formula 1 wins and world title records he feels matching the most successful driver of all-time is “not impossible” before the end of his career.

The newly-crowned four-time F1 world champion currently has 62 Grand Prix victories to his name, second on the all-time list and 29 behind Schumacher’s 91 wins, while he’s three F1 titles off of the legendary German’s seven world championships.

Hamilton holds the all-time most pole positions record after surpassing Schumacher’s previous record of 68 (the British driver currently has 72 poles) but isn’t concentrating too heavily on the other two honours despite conceding they aren’t out of reach considering the years he has left in his F1 career.

“I hope I will keep winning for a long, long time. If the fight remains within me and it is still there now but I still don’t really have the desire to chase Michael,” the 32-year-old said. “I’m much closer now than I’ve ever been. Before getting 91 wins felt so distant, it’s still a long way off but it’s not impossible to think it could potentially get somewhere near.

“I’m really just grateful to be up there among the real greats. Not only amongst them but now standing up there with them along with the four titles and the pole positions, I think that’s something I’m very proud of. I plan to win a lot more races, so we will see how it goes.”

Hamilton’s 2017 F1 world title triumph puts him equal on four with Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel, setting up a race to a fifth world crown against the latter in 2018, while he trails Schumacher’s all-time record of seven titles and Juan Manuel Fangio’s five crowns.