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Nigel Mansell | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpeg) Mansell at the2015 Mexican Grand Prix | |||||||
| Born | Nigel Ernest James Mansell (1953-08-08)8 August 1953 (age 72) Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, England | ||||||
| Spouse | |||||||
| Children | 3, includingLeo andGreg | ||||||
| Formula One World Championship career | |||||||
| Nationality |  British | ||||||
| Active years | 1980–1992,1994–1995 | ||||||
| Teams | Lotus,Williams,Ferrari,McLaren | ||||||
| Entries | 191 (187 starts) | ||||||
| Championships | 1 (1992) | ||||||
| Wins | 31 | ||||||
| Podiums | 59 | ||||||
| Careerpoints | 480 (482)[a] | ||||||
| Pole positions | 32 | ||||||
| Fastest laps | 30 | ||||||
| First entry | 1980 Austrian Grand Prix | ||||||
| First win | 1985 European Grand Prix | ||||||
| Last win | 1994 Australian Grand Prix | ||||||
| Last entry | 1995 Spanish Grand Prix | ||||||
| Champ Car career | |||||||
| 31 races run over 2 years | |||||||
| Team | Newman/Haas | ||||||
| Best finish | 1st(1993) | ||||||
| First race | 1993FAI IndyCar Grand Prix(Surfers Paradise) | ||||||
| Last race | 1994Monterey Grand Prix(Laguna Seca) | ||||||
| First win | 1993FAI IndyCar Grand Prix(Surfers Paradise) | ||||||
| Last win | 1993Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix(Nazareth) | ||||||
| |||||||
| 24 Hours of Le Mans career | |||||||
| Years | 2010 | ||||||
| Teams | Beechdean | ||||||
| Best finish | DNF(2010) | ||||||
| Class wins | 0 | ||||||
Nigel Ernest James Mansell (/ˈmænsəl/; born 8 August 1953) is a British formerracing driver, who competed inFormula One from1980 to1995. Mansell won theFormula One World Drivers' Championship in1992 withWilliams, and won 31Grands Prix across 15 seasons. InAmerican open-wheel racing, Mansell won theIndyCar World Series in1993 withNewman/Haas Racing, and remains the only driver to have simultaneously held both the World Drivers' Championship and the American open-wheel National Championship.
His career in Formula One spanned 15 seasons, with his final two full seasons of top-level racing being spent in the CART series. Mansell was the reigning F1 champion when he moved to CART, becoming the first person to win the CART title in his debut season, and making him the only person to hold both the World Drivers' Championship and the American open-wheel National Championship simultaneously. Mansell is the second most successfulBritish Formula One driver of all time in terms of race wins with 31 victories, behindLewis Hamilton with 105 wins, and is eighth overall on the Formula One race winners list.[1] He held the record for the most pole positions set in a single season, which was broken in2011 by Sebastian Vettel. He also remains the last Formula One driver to win a Grand Prix over the age of 40, which was the 1994 Australian Grand Prix.
Mansell raced in theGrand Prix Masters series in 2005, and won the championship title. He later signed a one-off race deal for the Scuderia Ecosse GT race team to drive their number 63Ferrari F430 GT2 car atSilverstone on 6 May 2007. He has since competed in additionalsports car races with his sonsLeo andGreg, including the2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, and was inducted into theInternational Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2005.
Nigel Ernest James Mansell was born on 8 August 1953 inUpton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, where his parents, Eric and Joyce Mansell, ran a tea shop.[2] He grew up inHall Green,Birmingham.[3] He attended Hall Green Secondary school.
Mansell had a fairly slow start to his racing career, using his own money to help work his way up the ranks. After considerable success in kart racing, he moved to theFormula Ford series to the disapproval of his father. In 1976, Mansell won six of the nine races he took part in, including his debut event atMallory Park. He entered 42 races the following year and won 33 of them to become the 1977 British Formula Ford champion, despite suffering a broken neck in a qualifying session atBrands Hatch.[4] Doctors told him he had been perilously close toquadriplegia, that he would be confined for six months and would never drive again. Mansell discharged himself from the hospital and returned to racing. Three weeks before the accident he had resigned from his job as anaerospace engineer, having previously sold most of his personal belongings to finance his foray into Formula Ford.[5] Later that year he was given the chance to race a Lola T570 Formula 3 car atSilverstone. He finished fourth and decided that he was ready to move into the higher formula.[6]
Mansell raced inFormula Three in 1978–1980. Mansell's first season inFormula Three started with apole position and a second-place finish. However, the car was not competitive, as a commercial deal withUnipart required his team to useTriumph Dolomite engines that were vastly inferior to theToyota engines used by the leading teams.[7] After three seventh-place finishes and a fourth in his last race, he parted from the team. The next season saw him drive forDavid Price Racing.[8] Following a first win in the series at Silverstone in March, he went on to finish eighth in the championship.[6] His racing was consistent, but a collision withAndrea de Cesaris resulted in a huge cartwheeling crash which he was lucky to survive. Again he was hospitalised, this time with brokenvertebrae.[4][8]
His driving was noticed byColin Chapman, owner ofLotus, and shortly after his accident, hiding the extent of his injury with painkillers, Mansell performed well enough during a tryout at the Paul Ricard circuit with Lotus, where he was pitted against a number of other drivers to determine who was going to take the second seat for the 1980 season alongsideMario Andretti, as ArgentineCarlos Reutemann was leaving to go to Williams. Driving a79, the seat eventually went to Italian driverElio de Angelis, but Mansell was selected to become a test driver for the Norfolk-based Formula One team.
Mansell's skill as atest driver, including setting the fastest lap aroundSilverstone in a Lotus car at the time, impressed Chapman enough to give him a trio of starts inF1 in1980, driving a development version of theLotus 81 used by the team, the Lotus 81B. In his Formula One debut at the1980 Austrian Grand Prix, a fuel leak in the cockpit that developed shortly before the start of the race left him with painful first and second degree burns on his buttocks. An engine failure forced him to retire from that race and his second, however an accident at his third event atImola meant he failed to qualify. Team leaderMario Andretti wrote his car off in a start-line accident during the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal, so Mansell had to give up his car for Andretti to compete in for his home race, the final race of the season atWatkins Glen in the United States. Andretti announced he was leaving to move toAlfa Romeo at the end of the season leaving Lotus with a vacant race seat.
Despite Mansell being unpopular with sponsorDavid Thieme of Essex Petroleum, and much speculation in the press thatJean-Pierre Jarier would fill the vacancy, Chapman announced at the start of the season that the seat would be filled by Mansell.
Mansell's four years as a full-time Lotus driver were a struggle, as the cars were unreliable and he was continually out-performed by teammate Elio de Angelis. Out of 59 race starts with the team, he finished just 24 of them. He managed a best finish of third place, which he achieved five times during the four years, including Lotus's fifth race of the1981 season, and only the seventh of Mansell's Formula One career. TeammateElio de Angelis took a surprise win at the1982 Austrian Grand Prix, and was frequently faster than his less-experienced colleague Mansell.
During the1982 season, Mansell planned to race in the24 Hours of Le Mans sportscar event in order to earn extra money. At the time Mansell was paid £50,000 a year and was offered £10,000 to take part in Le Mans. Chapman believed that by entering the Le Mans race, Mansell was exposing himself to unnecessary risk and paid him £10,000 not to take part in the race. Chapman extended Mansell's contract to the end of the1984 season in a deal that made him a millionaire.[9]
As a result of the gestures, such as described above, Mansell became very close to Chapman, who made him equal number one in the team with de Angelis, and 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."[10] Following Chapman's death, relationships at Lotus became strained, as replacement team principalPeter Warr did not have a high regard for him as a driver or person. Warr in his book titledTeam Lotus – My View From The Pit Wall stated about the 1982 season:
"After carefully analysing the season just finished, it was completely clear who was the number one. It was Elio. He was faster, he had out-qualified Nigel ten times to three. Elio had seven points scoring finishes to Nigel's two and in addition to Elio's win in Austria, had a tally of more than three times the number of points gained by Nigel. What is more, the margin by which Elio eclipsed his team-mate in qualifying overall was a huge 4.5 per cent. And all this in the year when, as near as can be reasonably achieved, the two drivers were given equal equipment and treatment."
De Angelis was then promoted back to outright number one for the 1983 season. This was demonstrated by the fact that he had exclusive use of the quick but unreliableRenault turbo-charged93T for the whole season, and Mansell did not get to drive a turbocharged car until the ninth round, theBritish Grand Prix atSilverstone, a race where he climbed from 16th to second and eventually finished fourth in a brand-new, hastily designed94T. Due to their tumultuous relationship and a lack of decent results, Warr was not keen on honouring the last year of the contract that Mansell had signed with Chapman. However, with encouragement from Lotus's sponsors, John Player Special (who allegedly preferred a British driver), and with the only other remaining top British driver (Derek Warwick, afterJohn Watson's retirement) already confirmed to be joining the factory Renault team, it was announced Mansell would be staying with the team.
In 1984, Mansell finished in the championship top 10 for the first time, and took his first career pole position but still finished behind teammate de Angelis, who finished third, in the championship. At the1984 Monaco Grand Prix Mansell surprised many by overtakingAlain Prost in a wet race for the lead, but soon after retired from the race after losing control on the slippery painted lines on the road surface on the run up the hill on lap 15. Late in the season, Lotus announced the recruitment ofAyrton Senna for thefollowing year, leaving Mansell with no race seat at Lotus. After receiving offers from Arrows and Williams, and first turning downWilliams's offer, it was announced before theDutch Grand Prix that he would indeed be joining Williams.
Mansell was remembered by many that year when he collapsed while pushing his car to the finish line after the transmission failed on the last lap of the1984 Dallas Grand Prix. The race was one of the hottest on record, and after two hours of driving in 104 °F (about 40 °C) conditions Mansell fainted while pushing his car over the line to salvage a sixth-place finish (and thus one championship point) in a race of which he had led half, having started from pole.[11]
In his autobiography, Mansell claimed that his final race with the Lotus team—the1984 Portuguese Grand Prix—was heavily compromised by Warr's unwillingness to give Mansell the brake pads he desired for the race. With 18 laps of the race remaining, and with Mansell in second position, the brakes on his car failed. On Mansell's departure, Warr was quoted as saying "He'll never win a Grand Prix as long as I have a hole in my arse".[12]
In1985Frank Williams hired Mansell to drive alongsideKeke Rosberg as part of theWilliams team, Mansell later saying "We have the greatest respect for each other."[13] Mansell was given the number 5 on his car, which initially was white like the 6 on Rosberg car, but was changed to red from theCanadian Grand Prix onwards, probably to help distinguish his car from Rosberg's due to their helmets being similar.[14] That gave birth to the "Red 5", brought to the public's attention mainly throughcommentatorMurray Walker for theBBC[citation needed], which Mansell kept carrying on subsequent Williams andNewman/Haas cars; even on the 1994 Williams, in which he would race the number 2, it would be red coloured.
Rosberg, the1982 World Champion who was heading into his fourth season with the team, was initially against Williams signing Mansell based on the clash the pair had at Dallas the previous year (Rosberg won that race and in an interview while on the podium publicly berated Mansell's blocking tactics while leading early in the race, which earned Rosberg a round of boos from the crowd who had appreciated Mansell's courage in trying to push his Lotus to the finish in the extreme heat). Other factors were what Rosberg later said in a 1986 interview was second-hand information about Mansell which ultimately proved to be false. The drivers found they got along well and from early in the pre-season formed a good working and personal relationship.
1985 initially appeared to provide more of the same for Mansell, although he was closer to the pace than before, especially as theHonda engines became more competitive by mid-season.
During practice for the1985 French Grand Prix, Mansell unwillingly broke the record for the highest speed crash in Formula One history. At the end of thePaul Ricard Circuit's 1.8 km long Mistral Straight he went off at the fast Courbe de Signes at over 322 km/h (200 mph) in hisWilliams FW10. Mansell suffered a concussion, which kept him out of the race. Teammate Rosberg claimed the pole for the race and finished second behind theBrabham-BMW ofNelson Piquet.
Mansell achieved second place at theBelgian Grand Prix atSpa-Francorchamps, and followed this with his first victory in 72 starts at theEuropean Grand Prix atBrands Hatch in England. He achieved a second straight victory at theSouth African Grand Prix inKyalami. These triumphs helped turn Mansell into a Formula One star.
Going into1986, the Williams-Honda team had a car, theFW11 which was capable of winning regularly, and Mansell had a new confidence that led to establishing himself as a potential World Championship contender. He also had a new teammate in twice World Champion Nelson Piquet who had joined Williams looking to be a regular winner and contender again after theBrabham-BMWs had become increasingly unreliable and uncompetitive. The Brazilian publicly described Mansell as "anuneducated blockhead" and had also criticised Mansell's wife Roseanne's looks, later retracting these statements following threats of legal action.[15][16]
Mansell won five Grand Prix in 1986 and also played a part in one of the closest finishes in Formula One history, finishing second toAyrton Senna in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez by a mere 0.014 seconds (Mansell later jokingly said they should give himself and Senna 7½ points each). The 1986 season was led mostly by Mansell in championship points, and it went down to the wire inAdelaide, Australia for theAustralian Grand Prix with Prost, Piquet and Mansell all still in contention 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 out on winning it after his left-reartyre exploded in spectacular fashion on the main straight with only 19 laps of the race to go.[17] In a 2012 interview for Sky Sports Legends of F1[18] Mansell revealed that, had he hit the wall rather than wrestling the car safely to a halt in the run-off area at the end of the straight, the stewards would most likely have red flagged the race. As the race was over two thirds distance, he would have kept his position and won his first F1 world title. Instead Mansell ended the season asrunner-up to Alain Prost. His efforts in 1986 led to his being voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
1986 proved to be a tough year for both Mansell and the Williams team, off the track at least. After a pre-season test session at thePaul Ricard Circuit in the south ofFrance, team ownerFrank Williams was involved in a horrific road accident which left him atetraplegic. Williams would not return to the scene until making a surprise appearance at theBritish Grand Prix atBrands Hatch where Mansell and Piquet finished 1–2. Williams's absence from the day-to-day running of the team created tension between the team and engine supplier Honda. The Japanese giant regarded dual World Champion Nelson Piquet as the team's number one driver (they were reportedly paying the bulk of Piquet's multimillion-dollar retainer) and were reportedly unhappy that the team's co-owner and Technical DirectorPatrick Head did not rein in Mansell during races and allowed him to take both points and wins from Piquet. As it was, while Williams dominated the Constructors' Championship, the two drivers took enough points from each other to allow McLaren's Alain Prost to sneak through and win the Drivers' Championship.
Before the season had started Honda had reportedly attempted to persuade Frank Williams to replace Mansell with their own test driverSatoru Nakajima. Williams, who was always more interested in the Constructors' title than the Drivers' as it showed that his team was the best, refused to do this, rightly believing that having two proven F1 winners in Piquet and Mansell would better-serve the team than Nakajima would as an F1 rookie.
Six more wins followed in1987, including an emotional and hugely popular victory atSilverstone for theBritish Grand Prix in which he came back from 28 seconds behind in 30 laps to beat teammate Piquet, with his car running out of fuel on the slowing down lap.[19] A serious qualifying accident atSuzuka in Japan for thepenultimate race of the season severely injured Mansell's back (a spinal concussion). Trying to beat Piquet's lap time, Mansell made a mistake and hit the guardrail.[20][21] As a result of Mansell's absence from the remaining two races, Piquet became champion for the third time. Piquet called his win over Mansell "a win of intelligence over stupidity".[22] The Brazilian also added that he won because he was more consistent than his teammate, racking up points and podiums where Mansell often ran into trouble. Piquet's was a percentage driving policy which worked well in the ultra-competitiveWilliams-Honda, whereas Mansell was a hard charger who many felt often pushed his luck too far.
In1988, for the first time in his career, Mansell was a team's first driver, having won more races in the previous two seasons than any other driver. However, Williams lost theturbo power of Honda toMcLaren, and had to settle with anaturally aspiratedJuddV8 engine in its first season in F1. A dismal season followed, which saw Mansell's Williams team experiment with a terribly unreliable (but extremely innovative)active suspension system (the system had worked well when introduced by the team in 1987 where it could draw on approximately 5% of the reported 1,000 bhp (746 kW; 1,014 PS) produced by the Honda turbo, but struggled with the 600 bhp (447 kW; 608 PS) Judd V8). Mansell would complete only two of the 14 races in which he appeared in 1988, both being podium finishes. One of these was a second place at theBritish Grand Prix at Silverstone where, overnight, the team had stopped using its active suspension (after months ofPatrick Head telling Mansell and teammateRiccardo Patrese that it would take many months of work to do so), and reverted to a passive suspension set-up.
Mansell contractedchickenpox in the summer of 1988 and after a competitive (but ill-advised) drive in the very hot conditions of the1988 Hungarian Grand Prix the illness became worse, forcing him to miss the next two Grands Prix inBelgium where he was replaced byMartin Brundle, andItaly where he was replaced by FrenchmanJean-Louis Schlesser. By missing the Italian Grand Prix atMonza, Mansell missed the traditional welcome by theTifosi for a newly signedFerrari driver after he had announced he would be leaving Williams to join theMaranello-based team for1989.
In preparation for the1989 season, Mansell became the last Ferrari driver to be personally selected byEnzo Ferrari before his death in August 1988, an honour Mansell described as "one of the greatest in my entire career". Enzo Ferrari presented a 1989Ferrari F40 as a gift to Mansell.[23] InItaly he became known as "il leone" ("the lion") by thetifosi because of his fearless driving style. The season was one of change in the sport, with the banning of turbo engines by theFIA and the introduction of the electronically controlledsemi-automatic transmission by Ferrari.
Mansell believed that 1989 would be a development year and that he would be able to challenge for the championship the following season. In his first appearance with the team he scored a very unlikely win in the1989 Brazilian Grand Prix at theAutódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet in Rio de Janeiro; his least favourite track, and the home race of his bitter rival Piquet. He later joked that he had booked an early flight home for halfway through the race as he predicted the car's new electronic gearbox would last only a few laps (as it had done throughout pre-season testing and in qualifying for the race).[24] Mansell became the first driver to win a race in a car with a semi-automatic gearbox. The race saw him as the first driver to win in their debut race for the Scuderia sinceMario Andretti had won the1971 South African Grand Prix and he would remain the last man to win on his Ferrari debut untilKimi Räikkönen won the2007 Australian Grand Prix.
The rest of 1989 was characterised bygearbox and various other problems, including a disqualification at theCanadian Grand Prix and ablack-flagged incident at thePortuguese Grand Prix for reversing in the pit lane, which resulted in a ban for the next race in Spain. However, Mansell finished fourth in the Championship with the help of a second win for Ferrari at the tight and twistyHungaroring for theHungarian Grand Prix. Early in practice Mansell had seen that trying to qualify the car high on the grid was a pointless exercise and he decided instead to concentrate on a good race set-up. After qualifying 12th (0.681s behind teammateGerhard Berger in sixth and 2.225s behind pole man Riccardo Patrese in his Williams-Renault) and not even being considered a chance for the race, he charged his way through the field until he pulled off a sensational passing manoeuvre on theMcLaren-Honda of World Champion Ayrton Senna on lap 58 to take a lead he would not lose.
A tough1990 followed with Ferrari, in which his car suffered more reliability problems, forcing him to retire from seven races. He was paired with Alain Prost, (who was also the reigning World Champion), and who took over as the team's lead driver. Mansell recalls one incident where at the1990 British Grand Prix, the car he drove did not handle the same as in the previous race where he had taken pole position. On confronting the mechanics, it transpired that Prost saw Mansell as having a superior car and as a result, they were swapped without telling Mansell.[25] 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 Frenchman Prost was not only a triple World Champion and the winner of more Grands Prix than anyone in history, but also spoke fluent Italian, whereas Mansell's Italian was only conversational at best, gave Prost greater influence within theMaranello-based team. According to Prost, Mansell only attended two or three mechanical briefings throughout the season, preferring playing golf. One notable highlight of the season was a daring pass on Gerhard Berger around the daunting high speed Peraltada corner that was later renamed in his honour. Approaching the corner for the penultimate time Mansell was bobbing 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.[26]
Mansell scored only a single win, at the1990 Portuguese Grand Prix, finished a thrilling second to Nelson Piquet inAustralia and finished fifth in the World Championship. Mansell then announced his retirement from Formula One.[27]
Mansell's retirement plans were halted whenFrank Williams stepped in. Mansell's return to Williams was not straightforward. He would agree to return only if a list of demands were met, including undisputed number one status over Riccardo Patrese (who had remained with the team through 1989 and 1990), guarantees of support in a wide variety of areas with each guarantee in writing, and assurances from suppliers such as Renault and Elf that they would do everything necessary to help him win. Frank Williams said the demands 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.[28] Williams signed Mansell on 1 October 1990 after Mansell was assured the contract stated that he would be the focus of the team, having experienced being the 'Number Two' driver at Ferrari. Mansell would be paid £4.6 million a season, a deal which made him the highest paid British sportsman at the time.[29]
His second stint with Williams was even better than the first. Back in the familiar 'Red 5', he won five races in1991, including theSpanish Grand Prix. In this race he went wheel-to-wheel with Ayrton Senna, with only centimetres to spare, at over 320 km/h (199 mph) on the main straight. Quite a different spectacle was offered following Mansell's victory in theBritish Grand Prix atSilverstone. Senna's car had stopped on the final lap, but, rather than leave his rival stranded out on the circuit (the two had come to blows in the pits following their first lap tangle during the1987 Belgian Grand Prix and were hardly close friends), Mansell pulled over on his victory lap and allowed Senna to ride on the Williams sidepod back to the pits.
The Williams team's decision to develop their newsemi-automatic gearbox by racing with it at the start of the season was at the cost of points in the opening rounds of the championship. Senna was on 40 points with four straight wins to open the season by the time Mansell gained his first finish with a second inMonaco. Mansell then had the next race inCanada practically won when hisWilliams FW14 stopped half a lap from the finish with what was reported to be transmission failure, though it was claimed by designerAdrian Newey that Mansell had let his engine revs drop too low while he was waving to the crowd in celebration and stalled his engine. This handed Nelson Piquet his 23rd and last F1 race win. Despite a good mid-season, which included ahat-trick of victories, Senna's consistency and Mansell's retirements at key races meant that he finished second in the Championship for the third time in his career, this time behind Senna.
Mansell started the1992 season with five straight victories (arecord not equalled untilMichael Schumacher in2004). At the sixth round of the season inMonaco, he took pole and dominated much of the race. However, with seven laps remaining, Mansell suffered a loose wheel nut and was forced into the pits, emerging behind Ayrton Senna'sMcLaren-Honda. Mansell, on fresh tyres, set a lap record almost two seconds quicker than Senna's and closed from 5.2 to 1.9 seconds in only two laps. The pair duelled around Monaco for the final four laps but Mansell could find no way past, finishing just 0.2 seconds behind the Brazilian.[30][31] Mansell broke the record for most wins by a British driver of all time when he won theBritish Grand Prix at Silverstone, as he surpassedJackie Stewart's record of 27 wins with his 28th. Mansell was finally crowned Formula One World Champion at the age of 39 early in the season at theHungarian Grand Prix, the 11th round of that season, where his second-place finish clinched the Drivers' Championship, securing the title in the fewest Grands Prix since the 16-race season format started. Mansell also set the then-record for the most wins in one season (9); both records stood until broken by Schumacher in2002. He managed 14 pole positions that year at the Brazilian Grand Prix on 26 November, a record only broken by Sebastian Vettel in2011. He also held the record for the most races before becoming World Champion with 180 races; this record was broken byNico Rosberg in2016 with 206 races.
OtherFormula One records set in 1992 that he still holds, as of 2025, are: the highest percentage of pole positions in a season (87.5%, 14 out of 16 Grands Prix); most Grand Prix wins before becoming World Champion (29th win achieved at the1992 German Grand Prix and crowned World Champion with a 2nd place at the1992 Hungarian Grand Prix); most runner-up championship finishes before becoming World Champion (three, being 1986, 1987 and 1991); most Grands Prix where the same driver started from pole, scored the fastest lap, and crashed out (four, being the1987 German Grand Prix,1990 British Grand Prix,1992 Japanese Grand Prix, and1992 Italian Grand Prix). Mansell is also the driver with the most wins among those who never won at Monaco (31, having surpassed Jim Clark's previous record of 25 with his 26th win at the1992 San Marino Grand Prix).
He won theBBC Sports Personality of the Year award again in 1992, one of only four people to have won the award twice.
During this season, Mansell gained a reputation for a psychological competitiveness and mind games. After the announcement by the FIA that the organization would be weighing drivers, Mansell, known for ignoring diet, starved and dehydrated himself the day prior to weigh-ins. This measure led to Mansell weighing less than his teammate Riccardo Patrese by half a kilogram.[32]
Whilst being world champion, Mansell had a public disagreement with Williams. In his autobiography, Mansell writes that this was because of a deal made at the previous Hungarian Grand Prix, which Williams reneged on, and the prospect of his former Ferrari teammateAlain Prost, who had sat out the 1992 season, being his teammate on Williams for the 1993 season.
Mansell's contract was due to expire at the end of the season. According to Patrick Head, Mansell pushed for a contract extension to be agreed early in the season. Despite this being unusual for the team, Mansell's perseverance purportedly paid off, and met with both Frank Williams and Patrick Head at the Williams Motorhome in Jerez, where they discussed and subsequently shook hands on a deal for a further two seasons (1993 and 1994). They followed this up with a written contract sent to Mansell's home address in the Isle of Man for final review and signature. According to Head, Mansell procrastinated on returning the signed agreement however, whilst winning back-to-back races over the upcoming months, finally resulting in Mansell asking for more money, which infuriated and frustrated the Williams leadership team.
According to Mansell, Williams had initially neglected to tell him that Prost had signed for1993 at only the second race of the 1992 season in Mexico, a position that Mansell felt would be similar to their days together at Ferrari in 1990. To boot, Ayrton Senna had expressed a strong desire to drive for Williams and even offered to drive for them at no salary (only to later be rebuffed as Prost, whose rivalry with the Brazilian was more intense than the one he had with Mansell, had a clause written into his contract which enabled him to block Senna's effort). Williams decided that there was little sense in paying the high fees Mansell went on to demand, and told him that he needed to sign on the original deal or Senna was ready to be signed instead. When Mansell discovered that Senna's potential signing was untrue and a ruse, he decided to move on and called a press conference to announce his retirement. Wiliams made an 11th hour offer to Mansell at the Italian Grand Prix, but by then the damage was done as he retired from F1.
Mansell then signed withNewman/Haas Racing to pair withMario Andretti in theCART series, replacing Mario's sonMichael who moved to F1 andMcLaren. At the season opener inSurfers Paradise, Australia, he became the first "rookie" to take pole position and win his first race. A few weeks later he suffered a substantial crash at thePhoenix International Raceway, severely injuring his back. At the1993 Indianapolis 500, Mansell would lead the race only to finish third after losing the lead toEmerson Fittipaldi andArie Luyendyk after a poor restart. On his 40th birthday Mansell would avenge his loss at Indianapolis to score a 200-mile race victory at New Hampshire International Speedway, perhaps his most exciting CART victory. He would go on to score five wins in the 1993 CART season, which, with more high-placed finishes, was good enough to earn him the championship. This enabled Mansell to become the only driver in history to hold both the Formula One and CART championships at the same time; when he won the 1993 CART championship he was still the reigning F1 world champion, the 1993 F1 championship not yet having been decided.
Following this successful season in CART, Mansell received several awards, including a Gold Medal from theRoyal Automobile Club and the 1994ESPY Award for Best Driver.
His Newman/Haas car was much less reliable the following year, 1994, and results suffered. Mansell was also the catalyst for the breakdown in the relationship between himself andMario Andretti. Andretti has since remarked "I guess ifRonnie Peterson was the best team-mate I ever had, Nigel Mansell was the worst" and "I had a lot of respect for him as a driver, but not as a man".[33]
In1994, after the CART season ended, Mansell returned to F1 and re-joined the Williams team. Since he had left it in 1992, the team had undergone some significant changes.Damon Hill had been promoted from test driver and was running full-time in one car. Prost, Mansell's replacement, won the 1993 Drivers' Championship and then retired after the season. This allowed Williams and Ayrton Senna to finally work out an agreement, and the team received a new sponsor inRothmans International for a season in which they were expected to remain as champions. However, the car proved unreliable and tricky to handle early in the season, leading Senna to retire from the opening rounds despite claiming pole. In the third race atImola,Senna was killed in a crash at the Tamburello curve.
Williams test driverDavid Coulthard took over Senna's seat for the majority of 1994 and Williams got permission fromNewman/Haas Racing to bring back Mansell at the French Grand Prix and the final three races of 1994 in Europe, Japan and Australia. Mansell was paid approximately £900,000 per race, compared to teammate Damon Hill being paid £300,000 for the entire season.[34] Mansell's return was helped by Bernie Ecclestone helping unravel his contracts in the United States. It was important for F1 to have a world champion driving that season and with worldwide TV viewing figures starting to decline, they needed Mansell. The 41-year-old was not as quick as Hill in race trim but signs that his speeds were coming back were evident in Japan during a battle with the Ferrari ofJean Alesi. Mansell took his final Grand Prix victory inAdelaide, the last race of the season, having out-qualified the two title contenders at the time,Damon Hill andMichael Schumacher, in the process (helped out by the second qualifying session being held on a wet track, with the times from the first session making up the grid). The plan initially was for Mansell to protect Hill from Schumacher, but both drivers passed him at the start and eventually collided (causing the retirement of both), handing Schumacher his first world title.
Mansell purportedly agreed a new contract to drive for Williams again in 1995, but later claimed this was rescinded.[35] Williams ultimately opted for youth over experience and hired Coulthard for the 1995 season.
After losing the Williams seat to David Coulthard, Mansell signed to drive for McLaren in1995.
McLaren's title sponsorsMarlboro wanted a world champion, whereas McLaren and their engine suppliersMercedes wanted a lower-profile driver for what was Mercedes' second year back in Formula One since abandoning it in1955.[36]
Before the season started, Mansell could not fit into the narrow car and was deputised byMark Blundell for the opening two rounds in Brazil and Argentina. Mansell's car was completed in 33 days and in time forImola, where despite being in the top six late in the race, a clash with Eddie Irvine saw him finish 10th and out of the points.[37] TheSpanish Grand Prix saw Mansell become frustrated over his car'shandling characteristics. He chose to retire after just two races with the team. Mansell cited the decision to retire as his not wanting to make up the numbers and with no hope of theMcLaren MP4/10 being competitive. In 2015, Mansell stated that he was wrong to leave McLaren so soon and that in hindsight he should have continued with the team for the season and help improve the car.[38]
A few testing sessions with F1 teams includingJordan suggested another comeback could be on the cards, but it never happened. Reports at the time suggested[39] that the Mansell–Jordan partnership for 1997 was a real possibility with Eddie Jordan's title sponsor willing to pay for the deal.[39] The Jordan team said after the tests in Barcelona in December 1996 that Mansell decided against it.[40]
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Mansell took part in the1993 TOCA Shootout, held at Donington Park. Mansell drove aFord Mondeo with his usual red number 5. The race ended in disaster for Mansell; he was knocked unconscious following a crash with six laps remaining.[41] He lost control of his car through the exit of the Old Hairpin, over-corrected the slide and collided withTiff Needell'sVauxhall Cavalier, resulting in a spin and a bad crash into the concrete wall under the bridge.[42]
Mansell made a return to racing in 1998 in theBritish Touring Car Championship, driving in a Ford Mondeo for three rounds. With the number 5 already taken byJames Thompson, Mansell raced with the red number 55.[43][44]
At his first event atDonington Park, he retired three laps into the sprint race, meaning he would start the feature race in 19th position on the grid. As the conditions changed and the track became wetter, Mansell found himself leading the race for several laps, and he finished in fifth position.[45] The race was regarded by many fans as one of the greatest in touring car history.[46]
It was to be his best finish in the series, as he failed to finish either race at the next round he participated in atBrands Hatch, and at his final race atSilverstone he finished in 14th and 11th place.[47][48] Having competed in three of the 13 rounds, he finished 18th out of 21 in the Drivers' Championship.[49]
On 16 July 2005, Mansell took part in aRace of Legends exhibition event at the Norisring round of theDTM.[50] He competed against other Formula One World ChampionsJody Scheckter, Alain Prost andEmerson Fittipaldi, as well asMotorcycle Grand Prix World ChampionsMick Doohan andJohnny Cecotto (himself a former F1 driver), each driver having an opportunity to driveAudi,Mercedes andOpel cars. Prost was announced as the winner by the DTM organisers.[51]
Mansell became a financial stakeholder and a driver in the newGrand Prix Masters series. Following a period of testing and developing the car, Mansell made a successful race comeback by winning the inaugural race of the series in Kyalami in November 2005 (Mansell had won at the old Kyalami circuit in 1985 and had also won at the new circuit in 1992).[52] After the success of the race at Kyalami, four dates were scheduled for the GP Masters Series in 2006, including one at Silverstone. Mansell won the season opener atQatar in April from pole position.[53] The Monza round of the series was cancelled due to noise limitations at the venue, whilst technical issues quickly ruled him out of the Silverstone race.[54]
Also in 2006 he appeared atBrands Hatch, scene of his first Grand Prix win, in October 1985, driving some demonstration laps in theBMW M3 GTR thatAndy Priaulx drove to victory in the 200524 Hours Nürburgring, as part of theWorld Touring Car Championship event.
On the weekend of 6 May 2007 he made an appearance in the second round of theFIA GT Championship at Silverstone driving aFerrari 430 GT2 for the Scuderia Ecosse team.[55] He was paired with Chris Niarchos, finishing seventh in class and 21st overall.[56]
Mansell, with his sonLeo, tested a Chamberlain-Synergy teamLe Mans prototypeLola-AER B06/10 during the week commencing 14 July 2008, at theEstoril circuit. The pair were said to be considering a drive in theAmerican Le Mans series, possibly commencing as soon as October 2008 in thePetit Le Mans event,[57][58] although neither driver was in the final field.
On 3 July 2009, Mansell tested his other sonGreg'sWorld Series by Renault car at theSilverstone Circuit, setting a best time six seconds off the pace of the fastest driver in the session.[59]
Mansell took part in the last round of the 2009 Le Mans Series, the 1000 km of Silverstone, drivingTeam LNT'sGinetta-ZytekGZ09S alongside his son Greg and team bossLawrence Tomlinson.[60]
Mansell raced a Ginetta-ZytekGZ09S in the2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, alongside his two sons.[61] According to the BBC, this was the first time a father has raced at Le Mans in the same car as his two sons. However, in the race he crashed after only five laps, following a tyre puncture.[62] Reports at the time indicated that he had suffered a concussion, but Mansell later revealed that the accident left him unable to talk or recognise his wife and children. To recover, he took upmagic in order to “get [his] brain to work in different ways.”[63][better source needed] Since taking up the hobby, Mansell has become a member of the Magic Circle and gone on to perform around the world, as he explained in a special video interview to mark 30 years since his F1 world-title win in 2022.[64]
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, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 British Grands Prix.Also Monaco GP 2012, US GP 2013, Brazil GP 2015.
Mansell has written several autobiographies and books on racing in general:
Mansell participated inPrince Edward's charity television specialThe Grand Knockout Tournament (1987).
There were three video games endorsed by Mansell:Nigel Mansell's Grand Prix (1988,Martech),Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing (1993,Gremlin Graphics), andNewman/Haas IndyCar (1994). Mansell also appeared as a playable driver for Williams inCodemasters'F1 2013.[65]
Mansell makes a guest appearance inSeries 7, Episode 5 ofTop Gear, a motoring show presented byJeremy Clarkson,Richard Hammond, andJames May.
In "Eurocrash", Series 5, Episode 2 ofThe Grand Tour, another motoring show presented by Clarkson, Hammond, and May, Mansell appears as awax figure which the presenters "steal" from the Polonia Wax Museum inKraków,Poland and take with them on their road trip acrossCentral Europe. Mansell is also credited as a presenter despite only appearing as a wax figure.
Mansell married his wife, Roseanne, on 19 April 1975, after having met as college students.[66]
He lived inPort Erin on theIsle of Man during most of his F1 career until 1995.[67] Mansell currently lives inJersey,Channel Islands. He spent 11 years of his life as a Special Constable on theIsle of Man during his driving career, and inDevon after he retired from racing. During this period, he also developed a golf course in Devon.[68]
A keen golfer, Mansell revealed a desire to compete inThe Open Championship[69] and briefly participated in the1988 Australian Open.[70] In the late 1980s he bought a sports car dealership inPimperne inDorset, naming it Nigel Mansell Sports Cars Ltd.[71]
Mansell was the owner of theTeam UK Youth cycling team.[72]
His sonsLeo andGreg are also former racing drivers.[73]
In addition to the aforementionedFerrari F40, Mansell has also owned a bronze left-hand drive 1988Mercedes-Benz (C126) 560SEC that he used to travel to races in Europe and later sold to art criticBrian Sewell, and a red 1984Audi Quattro.[74][75]
Although teams in motor racing series are generally allocated numbers, Mansell has been associated with the number 5 for many years. This began when he joinedWilliams in 1985 and was allocated car number 5, as at the time Formula One racing numbers were allocated by constructor and Williams received numbers 5 and 6. For the first four races of the1985 season, both Williams cars had white numbers, but from a distance the numerals "5" and "6" resembled each other. As a consequence, it was decided to give Mansell's car a red number to make it more distinctive. While this was initially just for recognition, BBC F1 commentatorMurray Walker began describing Mansell's car as "Red Five", leading to Mansell retaining the red coloured number throughout his first spell at Williams. On his return to the team in 1991, Williams had retained the number 5 car, allowing Mansell to race as "Red Five" once again. After his departure toCART in 1993 to drive forNewman/Haas, he again ran the red number 5 after Newman/Haas made a deal to acquire it from Penske (it had beenEmerson Fittipaldi's race number since 1991). In addition, "Red Five" fitted well into the livery of his Indy car, as Newman/Haas' main sponsorsTexaco andKmart both shared corporate colors of black, white and red. When he returned to Williams for four races in 1994 the team's numbers were 0 and 2 as they had won the Drivers' and Constructors' titles in 1993 but could not run #1 as Alain Prost had retired. Damon Hill drove car #0 while Mansell raced the #2 with the number on the nose of the car painted red (the #2 was white when the car was driven byAyrton Senna andDavid Coulthard). So associated with the red 5 is Mansell that, in 2004, he purchased a yacht fromSunseeker, one of his longtime sponsors, which he namedRed 5.[76]
Mansell was awarded the title ofBBC Sports Personality of the Year in both 1986 and 1992.[77][78] Only four other people have won the award more than once, including fellow racing drivers and former F1 World ChampionsDamon Hill andLewis Hamilton. Mansell was inducted into theInternational Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2005.[79] Mansell won theHawthorn Memorial Trophy, an award for the leadingBritish orCommonwealth driver in F1 each year seven times.
Already anOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), Mansell was appointed aCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to children and young people (as president of UK Youth).[80][81] He has also received theSpecial Constabulary Long Service Medal.
In 2015 turn 17 of theAutodromo Hermanos Rodríguez was renamed in honour of Mansell, twice winner of theMexican Grand Prix (1987 and1992).[82] He received The London Classic Car Show Icon Award in 2018.[83]
He was inducted into theMotorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2006.[84]
 |
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position; races initalics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Pos. | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Chevron Cars | Chevron B42 | Hart | THR | HOC | NÜR | PAU | MUG | VAL | ROU | DON DNQ | NOG | PER | MIS | HOC | NC | 0 |
| 1980 | Ralt Cars | Ralt RH6 | Honda | THR | HOC | NÜR | VAL | PAU | SIL 11 | ZOL Ret | MUG | ZAN 5 | PER | MIS | HOC 2 | 12th | 8 |
Source:[86] | |||||||||||||||||
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position, races initalics indicate fastest lap)
† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position)
| Year | Team | No. | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Pos. | Pts | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Newman/Haas Racing | 5 | Lola T93/00 | Ford XBV8t | SRF 1 | PHX DNS | LBH 3 | INDY 3 | MIL 1 | DET 15 | POR 2 | CLE 3 | TOR 20 | MCH 1 | NHA 1 | ROA 2 | VAN 6 | MDO 12 | NAZ 1 | LAG 23 | 1st | 191 | [89] |
| 1994 | Newman/Haas Racing | 1 | Lola T94/00 | Ford XBV8t | SRF 9 | PHX 3 | LBH 2 | INDY 22 | MIL 5 | DET 21 | POR 5 | CLE 2 | TOR 23 | MCH 26 | MDO 7 | NHA 18 | VAN 10 | ROA 13 | NAZ 22 | LAG 8 | 8th | 88 | [90] |
| Year | Chassis | Engine | Start | Finish | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Lola | Ford-Cosworth | 8 | 3 | Newman/Haas Racing |
| 1994 | Lola | Ford-Cosworth | 7 | 22 | Newman/Haas Racing |
Source:[91] | |||||
(key; Races inbold indicate pole position – 1-point awarded all races; Races initalics indicate fastest lap; * signifies that driver led feature race for at least one lap – 1-point awarded)
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | Pos | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Ford Mondeo Racing | Ford Mondeo | THR 1 | THR 2 | SIL 1 | SIL 2 | DON 1 | DON 2 | BRH 1 | BRH 2 | OUL 1 | OUL 2 | DON 1 Ret | DON 2 5* | CRO 1 | CRO 2 | SNE 1 | SNE 2 | THR 1 | THR 2 | KNO 1 | KNO 2 | BRH 1 Ret | BRH 2 Ret | OUL 1 | OUL 2 | SIL 1 14 | SIL 2 11 | 18th | 7 |
(key) Races inbold indicate pole position, races initalics indicate fastest lap.
| Year | Team | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Team Altech | Delta Motorsport GPM | Nicholson McLaren 3.5V8 | RSA 1 | ||||
| 2006 | Team Altech | Delta Motorsport GPM | Nicholson McLaren 3.5V8 | QAT 1 | ITA C | GBR Ret | MAL C | RSA C |
Source:[86] | ||||||||
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Beechdean Mansell | Greg MansellLeo Mansell | Ginetta-ZytekGZ09S | LMP1 | 4 | DNF | DNF |
Source:[93] | |||||||
