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The phone rings. Nigel Mansell has something to add. Five minutes after we've ended our conversation, the 1992 Formula 1 world champion is back on the line with another thought about Lewis Hamilton. It's a bold prophecy: "I predict Lewis will challenge Michael Schumacher's records in both wins and championships," says Mansell. "I won my world championship at 39 and he's only 32. Lewis is on 62 wins, while Michael has 91. With a hit rate of eight or nine wins a season, he only needs four more successful years to break all the records."

Last year, Hamilton eclipsed both Ayrton Senna and Schumacher to top the all-time pole position list, and has only Juan Manuel Fangio (five) and Schumacher (seven) ahead of him on world titles. Mansell's right; it's not insurmountable for Hamilton to become, statistically, the greatest F1 driver of all time.

"He has the most incredible opportunity and I hope he embraces it," adds Mansell. "Lewis had the most outstanding season in 2017, running with the finest team and the finest car of the past few years. I think he got better last year and can get even better in '18. Nothing beats winning and having support behind you. I hope he keeps his focus, as he has so much more to offer."

There was a time when the man breaking all the records was Mansell. In 1992, he became the first driver to win nine grands prix in a single season. And when he dominated the British Grand Prix that year, he scored his 28th GP victory, breaking the 19-year record that Jackie Stewart held as the most successful British driver in terms of wins.

A quarter of a century has passed since Mansell was tearing up racetracks in his Williams FW14B, but after he finally quit F1 he stayed close to the sport. Following his single-seater comeback in the short-lived Grand Prix Masters series, he guided his sons Leo and Greg through British Formula 3 and into sportscars, ultimately joining them in an ill-fated Le Mans appearance.

Mansell returned to F1 in 2010 when the FIA added a former driver to its roster of stewards at races, and he's deliberated over many on-track indiscretions over the past few seasons.

He has also dovetailed his motor racing interests with charitable work for UK Youth, and today, while starring in the occasional magic show, resides close to his Mitsubishi dealership (and museum) on the Bailiwick of Jersey.

Mansell is set to kickstart a new year of racing when he appears at Autosport International this week, but ahead of the event we spoke to the 64-year-old about a wide range of subjects. With his typically forthright views, Mansell gives his opinion on Max Verstappen and track limits, Fernando Alonso's racing ambitions outside of F1, his time at Ferrari and how Sebastian Vettel can return even stronger in 2018.

Nigel Mansell on Max Verstappen

It was at the 1980 Austrian Grand Prix when 'Our Nige' made his debut in grand prix racing at the age of 27. He ran a third Lotus and completed only 40 laps until his engine failed, but more seriously he suffered burns from leaking fuel that soaked through his overalls. His early career was characterised by wild flashes of speed, combined with his trademark bravery - there were shunts too - and Mansell was regularly checking himself into hospital.

He sees the same flashes of speed, bravery and brilliance in Red Bull's Verstappen, but believes that modern F1's safety standards allow drivers such as the 20-year-old to take more risks.

"With the way Formula 1 has gone with safety, you can make some bad mistakes and not be seriously hurt," says Mansell. "The perfect example is what Verstappen did in attempting to overtake Romain Grosjean and crashing head-on at Monaco a couple of years ago.

"In my day if you were lucky you'd just have a broken leg, but you'd still need a long recovery period. It just goes to show you where the sport is with its technology and safety standards. In days gone by, Max would have learned the hard way."

Mansell believes Red Bull will be able to mount a challenge for the championship this year, giving fans a three-way fight for victory. It's perhaps apt that Mansell's one and only championship was also in a Renault-powered, Adrian Newey-designed machine.

"I think the resurgence of Red Bull will continue as Adrian Newey's cars are always fantastic, combined with the support of Renault. Both Dan and Max had bad luck last year - in fact it was crazy - but thank goodness it came together for Max at the end. They are huge talents - both of them - and Max is going to be at Red Bull for a considerable time. I hope the team can be more reliable and closer so they can challenge for the championship in 2018."

Mansell on Vettel's failed title challenge

Ferrari's fight for last year's world title came to a spectacular halt in the first few hundred metres of the Singapore Grand Prix and was compounded by unreliability for Vettel, both in qualifying in Malaysia and the race in Japan.

After failing to capture the championship last year, the Ferrari man needs to be even better in 2018, in a similar style to how Mansell came back stronger after losing out to Senna in 1991. He believes that Vettel will be able to lift himself from the depths of defeat.

"You need to turn the negativity of losing into positivity," he says. "You say to yourself, 'Next year's my year.' Seb should bounce back strongly and he should understand it was 50/50 between him losing the championship and the team letting him down with unreliability and making bad calls. If you consider where Ferrari was in 2016, it did a fantastic job last year to be able to challenge for the championship.

"Having driven for Ferrari I know that momentum builds at the team. They made a fantastic start to the year and it all seemed to be under control. Then the most significant thing that happened is that some mind games started to play out. Baku was a very unfortunate situation because without Seb getting a stop-go penalty, he would have won that grand prix.

"Then the race that made me jump out of my chair was Singapore. That was the defining moment of last year. Mercedes weren't favourites to win that GP and it was handed to Lewis on a plate.

"What Ferrari has done to challenge the might of Mercedes in a short period of time was awesome to watch and it was disappointing to see some of the things develop that hurt them throughout the year. They will come back stronger this season."

Mansell on Alonso's frustrations

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Mansell's victorious CART Indycar season, as he became the first driver to win back-to-back F1 and Indycar titles. Twice he attempted to match the feats of Jim Clark and Graham Hill by tackling the prestigious Indianapolis 500. He led the 1993 edition until he dropped to third on a late-race restart, and crashed out on his second attempt the following year.

Sixteen years later, at the age of 56, Mansell took on motorsport's endurance classic as he contested the Le Mans 24 Hours in an LMP1 Ginetta-Zytek shared with his two sons. Sadly a puncture pitched the car into the barriers in the opening laps, putting paid to his bid.

Last year Alonso took his first step in following Mansell's path by taking on racing's unofficial 'triple crown'. He skipped the Monaco Grand Prix to compete at Indianapolis, a race he could have won before he was let down by engine failure. And this year Alonso will contest the Daytona 24 Hours as a precursor to a future Le Mans bid.

Mansell is a fan: "Fernando is a huge talent, a great world champion and most of all a racer. It's a shame that he has been stymied throughout his career through no fault of his own. But how on earth have the might of Honda and McLaren suffered in the doldrums like they have for the past three or four years? Can it be that difficult?

"I drove for Honda and they were - and are - a fantastic company, but they are missing something from somewhere and poor old Fernando's got caught up in it.

"I believe he can win several more championships, he's an unbelievable racer and I really hope McLaren can give him the goods this year so that he can compete at the top level again."

Mansell on number one drivers

When Mansell was pitched against Nelson Piquet at Williams, the question over who was the number-one driver became an issue, as both believed they had priority status in the team. Mansell was further troubled when Alain Prost was drafted in alongside him as the de facto team leader at Ferrari, and the Brit was determined to be guaranteed senior status when he returned to Williams. He believes that Vettel will benefit if there is a clear structure at Ferrari today.

"When you're the outright number one of any team and you have total support, then you can compete at the highest level," says Mansell. "It's very different when you don't get the support of the team.

"There were a number of challenges I had. One of them was that I kept coming back to compete, but I was the number-two driver. In my day, the thing that was so critical was the reliability of the cars and the number one always had the best components and so better reliability."

In 1986, the bitter intra-team duel between Mansell and Piquet ultimately cost Williams the drivers' championship, because in the aftermath of Mansell's famous tyre blow-out in Adelaide, Prost sneaked through to take the crown for McLaren. Mansell says it's vital that teams don't repeat that mistake.

"If you have one driver who defers to the other, it's important to have that understanding in the team, otherwise you can lose a championship through infighting," says Mansell. "But in reality, I'd love to see two number ones in all the teams because there are so few cars on the grid. I'd like to see more cars and drivers competing and greater competition throughout the whole field."

Mansell on driving for Ferrari

With the exception of the dominant Schumacher years, winning world championships with Ferrari does not tend to look like an easy task, as Alonso - and now Vettel - will testify. When Mansell drove for the Italian marque (1989-90) his team-mate Prost came close to conquering the might of Senna and McLaren, until he was memorably thwarted by the Brazilian's ruthlessness at Suzuka's Turn 1.

The following year, Prost was unceremoniously dumped by Ferrari when he dared to criticise the ill-handling 643. With so much pressure on the Scuderia from the passionate Italian fans, the team will often find a scapegoat in the aftermath of failure.

"Ferrari is not just a race team, it's an institution," says Mansell, who was Enzo Ferrari's last signing before his death. "If you are an Italian and you are two years old or 92 years old, you know who the Ferrari drivers are. You don't get the church bells ringing in Brackley when Lewis Hamilton wins a race for Mercedes, but the church bells chime all around Maranello when Ferrari wins.

"I was part of that for a couple of years and it's one big family. Ferrari is different, whether that's because they have this Latin feel, I don't know, but put it this way: there aren't many teams in the world where the Pope has visited the factory.

"The power of Ferrari is something very special and I cherished the time I had with them. In some ways it was too short and, yes, it is very political. They demand success and if you don't deliver the goods, then, sadly, they look for a fall guy to take the blame."

Mansell on track limits

One of the more controversial moments of last season was Verstappen's last-lap pass on the inside of Kimi Raikkonen at the United States GP at Austin, which, with his FIA stewarding hat on, Mansell was concerned about.

In the battle for the final podium position, Verstappen cut the inside of Turn 17 and overtook the Ferrari for third. It was an ambitious move and he was deemed to have 'gained a lasting advantage', and the Red Bull driver was demoted from the podium when the stewards awarded him a five-second penalty. The problems in this case were twofold: the amount of runoff on newly built F1 tracks, and the perceived inconsistency of the stewarding.

Mansell: "The safety standards in F1 now are fantastic, but a track limit is exactly that - the limit of the edge of the racetrack. The paradox for drivers now is that the racing is almost too safe, so the challenge for the organisers is to ratify what track limits are. It looks like some people get away with things, while other get penalised - and that is wrong."

Mansell has been a driver steward at numerous circuits - including Silverstone, Spa and Austin - since the FIA introduced the role in 2010, and he's also a member of the FIA's Drivers' Commission. He believes the best way to penalise racers who regularly defy track limits is to instigate a 'three-strikes-and-you're-out' policy.

"If you go over the limit then I suggest you get three 'byes', so the stewards don't have to act unless a driver does it a fourth time," says Mansell. "I think it's grossly unfair at the moment because I think the fans can't understand some of the decisions. We should give drivers three byes and after that a five-second time penalty. Then it's straightforward for everybody and the stewards don't need to have this terrible agony of penalising one driver while another gets away with it."

Mansell on the halo

The single biggest visual change to Formula 1 is coming for 2018 when every car adopts the controversial halo cockpit-protection device. The intention is to reduce the chances of a driver being struck on the head by debris or errant wheels, but the unwieldy nature of the structure has led to criticism over its aesthetics.

Despite the evidence pointing to its worth, many, including Mansell, are not in favour. "Personally, I'm not a fan," he says. "There has to be an element of racing a car and taking some risks, and the drivers are going to be hidden away even more.

"In my career I raced with barriers on the edge of the circuit with 200mph corners and big kerbs on the outside of them. Then, if you got it wrong you were launched over the barriers, but I survived, despite a few significant injuries.

"But my career pales into insignificance when you think of the era in which Fangio or Stirling Moss raced - they didn't even have safety belts. We need to be careful. I hope the halo won't be a hindrance if a driver is trapped upside down, or whether it might cause problems because of blind spots.

"We'll have to see what the cars look like, but my fear is that it might turn a lot of people off."