Lionheart - Nigel Mansell

Nigel Ernest James Mansell was born August 8th 1953 in Worcestershire, England. He had a slow start to his racing career. After relative success at karting, he still had to use his own money to keep moving up the ranks. Mansell eventually made his way on to the British Formula Ford championship despite the fact that his father wasn’t in favor of his son chasing a career in motorsport. However, Nigel made it very clear that becoming a professional racing driver was exactly what he was going to do when he quitted his job as an aerospace engineer (no kidding, look it up), for him to focus on racing. In 1977, after having an accident qualifying for a race, the doctors told him that the crash left him dangerously close to quadriplegia, that he would have to be confined for six months in hospital and would never be able to drive again. He left hospital long time before what the doctors said and went directly back to racing. He would win the British Formula Ford championship that same year.

Nigel Mansell went as far as quiting his job to pursue a career in racing. In 1977, he became Formula Ford champion.

Later that same year, Mansell was given the chance to race a Lola Formula 3 car at a race in Silverstone. He would go on to deliver quite a spectacle and finish the event in 4th place. Ever since that moment, he declared himself ready to race at the higher formula clases. Nigel would participate in Formula 3 from 1978 to 1980. His first season started with a pole position and a 2nd place podium, however, the rest of the season was dissapointing as his car wasn’t able to compete with the top teams. His second season saw him change teams and achieve his first victory in the series. After being hospitalized yet again because of a crash that left him with a broken vertebrae, he finished the championship 7th place.

After his first victory in Formula 3, Mansell suffered a serious crash. He would finish the championship in 7th place.

His driving was consistent, finishing with good results every race. His talent was noticed by Colin Chapman, owner of Lotus. Shortly after his accident, Mansell, fueled by painkillers to hide the extent of his injuries, performed a test at the Paul Ricard circuit driving a Lotus 79. Along with him, Chapman had brought other drivers that he believed could be the replacement for Carlos Reutemann, who was leaving Lotus. Eventually the seat went to Italian driver Elio de Angelis, but Mansell was selected to become a test driver for the Norfolk-based Formula One team.
Mansell continued to prove his talent when he established a historical lap record at the Silverstone track while on testing for the British GP. The feat impressed Mr Chapman enough to let Mansell start 3 races that season, however, he would fail to finish any of them due to mechanical failures. Later that year, it was announced that Mario Andretti was leaving to race for Alfa Romeo, leaving a vacant seat at Lotus. After much speculation, Colin Chapman announced that he was signing Mansell as official driver for the 1981 season.

Mansell made his F1 debut racing 3 times in 1980 for Essex-Lotus

In 1982, after Mansell suffered several retirements due to the car’s unreliability, he opted to try race the LeMans 24 hours as a way to get extra money, however, seeing it as an unnecessary risk, Chapman paid Mansell the same amount of money he could win at LeMans just for him not to go. As a result these gestures, Mansell became very close to Chapman, who made him equal number one in the team with de Angelis. Nigel was devastated by Chapman’s sudden death in 1982. In his autobiography Mansell stated that when Chapman died, “The bottom dropped out of my world. Part of me died with him. I had lost a member of my family”. Following Chapman’s death, relationships at Lotus became tense, as new team principal Peter Warr didn’t have a high regard for Mansell as a driver or person.

Mansell became really close to Colin Chapman as he felt really appreciated by the late team owner.

Mansell would stay racing for Lotus until he changed to Williams in 1985. He was constantly upset by the decitions made by team principal Peter Warr, and staying only because of the respect he had for Chapman. During his 4 years in the team, many things happened. Mansell managed several podiums with a couple 2nd places as a best result, however no victories. In 1984, his last year with the team Mansell disputed in the drama filled Dallas GP. He qualified 1st and kept the lead for over half the race. It seemed that he was going to finally get his first victory, however he was overtaken by Keke Rosberg and then fell other 3 places due to his worn tyres. Mansell would eventually finish 6th after one of F1’s most memorable moments. On the last lap, Mansell suffered a problem with his gearbox and was coasting his car on the finish straight. As he lost speed, people could see Mansell lift his visor, remove his harness and jump out of his black Lotus. The spectators were confused as the once poleman started pushing his car in an attempt to cross the finish line just like what Jack Brabham had done 25 years earlier. However, unlike Brabham, Mansell wouldn’t make it as he passed out from exhaustion after having managed to push his car until the starting grid markings on the ground, just meters away from the line. Although neither Mansell nor his car crossed the finish line, he somehow classified 6th, (at the time, that was the last point awarded result) saving one last championship point for the team. His effort would be rewarded 2 races later at Zolder, when “The British Lion” scored a 2nd place podium.

Mansell fainted on the start/finish line of the 1984 Dallas GP after pushing his car

In 1985, Frank Williams decided to sign Mansell on his Williams-Honda team alongside 1982 champion Keke Rosberg. Initially Rosberg was against signing Nigel to the team, however the two drivers turned out to get along well and soon started to deliver results to the newly formed Anglo-Japanese alliance. Mansell was given his famous “Red 5” on his car and with it, he went on to get his first F1 victory at his homeland of England with the European GP celebrated that year at Brands Hatch. He and his now world famous mustache went on to win the following race at Kyalami, South Africa.

Nigel got his first F1 win at the European GP in 1985, his first season with Williams and his iconic "Red 5"

In 1986, the Williams-Honda team had a car capable of winning regularly, and Mansell had established himself as a potential World Championship contender. He also had a new teammate, twice World Champion Nelson Piquet who had joined Williams looking to be a regular winner and contender again after the Brabham-BMWs had become increasingly unreliable and uncompetitive. Mansell got five Grand Prix wins in 1986 and also played a part in one of the closest finishes in Formula One history, finishing second to Ayrton Senna in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez by a mere 0.014 seconds. The 1986 season was led mostly by Mansell in championship points, and it went down to the wire in Adelaide, Australia for the Australian Grand Prix with Alain Prost, Piquet and Mansell all still fighting for the title. The equation was simple, Prost and Piquet needed to win and have Mansell finish no higher than fourth. After aiming for a third-place finish which would guarantee him the title, Mansell would narrowly miss victory after his left-rear tyre exploded on the main straight with only 19 laps to go. Prost would end up winning the title.

In 1986, Mansell missed out on a championship win that ultimately went to McLaren's Alain Prost

1987 had no real highlights other than an emotional victory at Silverstone that ended when his car ran out of fuel in the cool down lap and him having to run to the podium.
1988 however was a whole different story as it was the first year Williams experimented with an active suspension system. Said system was extremely innovative, however, also extremely unreliable. Williams had to adapt to the lack of Honda’s turbo engines and settle with the naturally aspirated Judd engines. The car would finish only 2 out of the 14 races it took part, however both of them being podium finishes by Mansell and his new teamate Ricardo Patresse. Later in the season, Mansell would fall sick to chickenpox and had to miss 2 races, one of them being Monza, and the traditional welcome for a newly signed Ferrari driver which Mansell announced he would be for 1989.

With a new car, Mansell won his home Grand Prix at Silverstone 1987

1989 was a very emotional year for Mansell as he became the last driver personally selected by Enzo Ferrari before his death. No one knew what to expect of the season as the FIA straight up banned turbo engines and forced the introduction of an electronic semi-automatic gearbox. Mansell ended up getting a victory at the first race of the season at the Brazilian GP in the Nelson Piquet International Autodrome, right in the face of his former teamate. Mansell didn’t like that track, and said (we still don’t know if its true, and knowing Mansell, it could be) that he bought a ticket for an earlier flight back home since he didn’t expect the new complicated gearbox to work until the end of the race. However, that is what ended up happening the rest of the season as Ferrari had multiple retirements and only 3 race wins. 2 by Mansell and 1 by Gerhard Berger.

In 1990 he stayed with Ferrari, where the car suffered more reliability problems. He was paired with Alain Prost, and who took over as the team’s lead driver. Mansell recalls one incident where at the 1990 British Grand Prix, the car he drove did not handle the same as in the previous race where he had taken pole position. He confronted the mechanics and discovered that Prost saw Mansell as having a superior car and as a result, they were swapped without telling Mansell. After retiring from the race, he announced he was retiring from the sport altogether at the end of the season. This, combined with the fact that Prost was not only a triple World Champion and the winner of more Grands Prix than anyone in history, but also spoke fluent Italian, gave Prost greater influence within the Maranello-based team. Ironicaly, the Frenchman would be fired from the team the next season. One notable highlight of the season was a daring pass on Gerhard Berger around the outside of the daunting high speed Peraltada corner at the Mexican GP. Approaching the corner for the penultimate time Mansell was weaving from side to side in Berger’s mirrors. Heading into one of the quickest corners on the calendar at the time, where the Ferraris had registered forces of 4.7g during practice. Mansell launched to the outside of Berger and flashed past to take second place.

Mansell was the last driver Enzo Ferrari himself chose for the Maranello team, he would dispute 2 seasons with them.

His retirement however, was stopped by Frank Williams, who offered him a seat on his team. Mansell agreed but only if a list of demans were satisfied, among them was that he would get the position as main driver of the team and that Williams suppliers, ELF and Renault gave him special benefits. Mr Williams said that his requests were impossible, Mansell concluded that if that were the case he would be happy to retire. Three weeks later, “the impossible” had happened and Mansell was a Williams driver. With his newly re-claimed “Red 5” he started a stint with the team that resulted much better than the last one as he went on to have 5 race wins in 1991. One of the most remarcable being Spain, when Mansell battled Ayrton Senna at the finishing straight with only centimeters between the cars. That same season, Mansell demonstrated great sportmanship after his victory in Silverstone. Senna’s car had stopped by the track on the last lap, Mansell went on to win the race and in the cool down lap, instead of just leaving the Brazilian to walk to the pits, he stopped beside him and gave him a ride on his car’s sidepod. All this despite the fact that the 2 had a heated encounter on the previous race at Belgium.

In Spain 1991, Mansell and Senna gave the crowd an amazing spectacle with the cars just inches from each other on the straight.

Mansell kept showing the type of driver he was when he gave Ayrton Senna a ride on his car after the Brazilian retired on the last lap.

1992 was Mansell’s best season. He started the year with a victory and went on to win 5 consecutive races, a record that wouldn’t be broken until Michael Schumacher did the same in 2004. He had yet another amazing battle with Ayrton Senna at Monaco. The two battled it out for the last 3 laps, Mansell was all over Senna and if it weren’t for the tight streets, he would have won. However “The King of Monaco” defended and went on to win the race, declaring it to have been the best piece of defensive driving of his career. “The British Lion” would finish 2nd, 0.2 seconds behind. Mansell would fail to win Monaco, however he set yet another historical record with the most wins in one season with 9, another record that wouldn’t fall until Schumacher broke it 10 years later. This was enough to get Nigel Mansell his first and only world championship win becoming Britain’s first world champion in 16 years. Ironically, it wasn’t until after another 16 years, that another Englishman was crowned champion: Lewis Hamilton.
He still went on to set multiple records that stand until today with the highest percentage of Pole Positions (88%), most wins from Pole (9) and most championship runner-up results before becoming champion (3). Another one of his records was to be champion after the greatest amount of races with 180 events disputed before being crowned, this last one was broken in 2016 by Nico Rosberg, the son of Mansell’s former teammate.

Nigel Mansell became F1 world champion in 1992

After Mansell discovered that his old rival Alain Prost was set to return to Williams in 1993, he decieded to leave leave F1. Mansell then signed with Newman/Haas Racing to pair with Mario Andretti in the Indycar series. At the season opener at Surfers Paradise, Australia, he became the first “rookie” to take pole position and win his first race. At the 1993 Indianapolis 500, Mansell would lead the race only to finish third after losing the lead to Emerson Fittipaldi and Arie Luyendyk after a poor restart. On his 40th birthday, however, Mansell would avenge his loss at Indianapolis to score a race victory at the Michigan 500, considered by many to be a tougher 500 mile race to win. He would go on to score five wins for the 1993 Indycar season, which, with more high-placed finishes, was good enough to earn him the championship. This enabled Mansell to become the first and only driver in history to hold both the Formula One and Indycar championships at the same time. (since the 1993 F1 championship not yet having been decided)

In 1993, with the F1 championship still unfinished, Mansell became the only driver to hold the F1 and Indycar championships.

In 1994, 40 year old Mansell was brought back to Williams after the fatal crash of Ayrton Senna at San Marino. The idea was for him just to complete the season defending Damon Hill so that he could win the championship. That year, he won his last F1 race at the Australian GP. Mansell failed to complete his assignment and Schumacher went on to win his first world championship. Because of this, Williams replaced him with young David Coulthard.
In 1995, Mansell disputed 2 races with McLaren, non of them with good results. After this, he retired from F1 for good.

Mansell won his last ever race at Adelaide 1994, he would retire from F1 next year.

Mansell still was seen a couple times in other motorsport events such as the British Touring Car Championship and the Masters GP in 2005 and 2006. For the 2010 Formula One season, the Sporting Regulations were changed so that a former driver sits on the stewards’ panel. Mansell took this role at the 2010, 2011 and 2012 British Grands Prix. There were three video games endorsed by Mansell: Nigel Mansell’s Grand Prix (1988), Nigel Mansell’s World Championship (1993), and Newman/Haas IndyCar (1994). Mansell also appeared as a playable driver for Williams in Codemasters’ F1 2013.
Mansell currently lives in Jersey, Channel Islands. He is a keen golfer and the owner of the Team UK Youth cycling team. In 2005 he was added to the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.

In 2015, the last corner of the Mexican GP track was re-named in his honor

His helmet is one of F1's most recognizable designs

He was and still is one of the most loved F1 drivers

And he did all this, under the influence of a mustache

So guys, that was the story of Nigel Mansell. Another of my favorite F1 drivers. I decieded to make this small return to my old F1 driver articles, it was a long time since I stoped writing them and I just wanted to write about Mansell, so I did. I know this was a long article, I hope I didn’t get you bored. Tell me, what do you think of Mansell? do you like him or not? do you think it is a shame that no F1 drivers have a mustache like his? ;) Leave your answers and opinions in the comments!

So guys, that is the end of this article. If you’ve read until this point then thank you very much, I appreciate it very much and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. As I said in my last article, I should now be able to post articles a little more often since I’m now on vacations after my first year of highschool. It will be plenty of time, and because I sometimes feel empty when it comes to article ideas, feel free to give me ideas or suggestions on a topic you would like me to write about.

That was it guys,
F1Trooper out.