I know how Michael Schumacher would feel about Lewis Hamilton scenario at Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton is poised to challenge for Ferrari's first F1 Drivers' Championship title since Kimi Raikkonen's 2007 triumph.

As he aims for this milestone, he could also eclipse Michael Schumacher's record of seven F1 crowns - a feat that would put him at the forefront of the sport's history. Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 F1 world champion, offered his perspective on how Schumacher might feel about Hamilton rewriting the record books.

"No, Michael Schumacher wouldn't be happy to see Lewis Hamilton win the eighth championship," Villeneuve argued to YaySweepstakes.com. "Nobody who holds a record wants to be beaten. It's the name of the game, that's why you're a sportsman. And every driver, including me, always said, 'Oh, the number of wins don't matter, records don't', but that's not true.

"You just don't want to seem pompous or arrogant. So you just say, 'No, no, I don't care, don't look at these numbers', but of course you do. It's part of your ego, it's part of why you're a competitor.

"Because you want to win, you want to beat everyone, you want to be the best. You want the results, you want the wins, you want the championships, you want the biggest salary. That's how you judge yourself. It's super important."

Although Villeneuve believes Schumacher would begrudge losing his share of the record, the iconic driver had made peace with the notion of his records being surpassed after retiring in the era following Fernando Alonso's back-to-back championships, reports the Express.

When he was asked by BBC Sport in 2008 if he thought his record would one day be surpassed, he responded with confidence: "I would say, absolutely, yes. Nobody thought, even me, that I could beat [Juan Manuel] Fangio. Then I did. Records are there to be beaten."

Schumacher expressed a calm acceptance about the prospect. "I'm quite relaxed that one day it will happen, whether it's Lewis, whether it's [Felipe] Massa, [Sebastian] Vettel or whoever. It might be someone of the current or of the future that could or will do it. But I've got no problem about it," he insisted.

Hamilton, now 40, has cited Schumacher as part of the reason behind his own illustrious career and subsequent move to Ferrari. He's often spoken about his boyhood admiration for the German, who raced for Jordan, Benetton, the Scuderia and later Mercedes after his return to the sport.

Reflecting on the move last February, Hamilton said: "Of course, I think for every driver growing up, watching the history, watching Michael Schumacher in his prime, I think probably all of us sit in our garage and see the screen pop up, and you see the driver in the red cockpit, and you wonder what it would be like to be surrounded by the red.

"As a kid, I used to play the Grand Prix Two computer game as Michael in that [Ferrari] car. It is definitely a dream, and I am really excited about it."